


The Choice

by linksofmemories



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Derek, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, M/M, Masturbation, Mates, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Stiles Stilinski, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Self-Lubrication, Traditions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-14
Updated: 2013-07-09
Packaged: 2017-12-14 23:03:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 48,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/842377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/linksofmemories/pseuds/linksofmemories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was always said that the Omega had the choice. The Omega chose their Alpha. Sure, that was great on paper, but no one ever told Stiles how many strings had to be pulled and deals had to be made behind the scenes for him to be pushed into choosing the Alpha everyone wanted him to choose.</p><p>Of course there was a choice to be made, but he definitely wasn't the one who was supposed to make it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Stiles, we really shouldn’t be doing this.”

He kept walking.

“We should just head back to your house.”

Just kept on going.

“Play some Mass Effect, eat some pizza, go to bed early so that you’re well-rested for tomorrow.”

Wasn’t even going to look back.

“Stiles, if we get caught we’re going to be in so much trouble.”

He just kept on trekking.

“We really shouldn’t be doing this.”

“I don’t fucking care!” Stiles shouted, stopping and turning around to face Scott.

“ _Stiles_ ,” Scott chided. “You’re not allowed to cuss.”

And he wasn’t. He wasn’t allowed to do a lot of things.

“I know,” Stiles said. “I just want to.”

Scott gave him the sad, pitying look he had been giving him the past few weeks, before sighing and walking toward him.

“All right,” Scott said. “Let’s get you drunk and then I’m taking you home.”

“That sounded like the worst pickup line in the history of the world.”

“Just don’t tell Allison.”

Stiles laughed at that, wrapping an arm around his best friend’s shoulders as they walked deeper into the woods. Eventually they reached a small clearing and Stiles sat down, leaning against a tree trunk, and opening the bottle of Jack he had stolen from his dad’s liquor cabinet.

“If anyone finds out we left your house, we’re screwed,” Scott said, leaning against a tree opposite Stiles.

“I know,” Stiles said, taking a long drink from the bottle. “I don’t care.”

“I know you don’t,” Scott sighed. “But I care about you. What happens tomorrow when all of the Alphas are told that you got drunk in the woods with your best friends?”

“Hopefully none of them will accept my offer and I can go home,” Stiles said.

“No, you’ll probably get stuck with the worst Alpha there.”

“Yippee.”

“And he’ll be old and wrinkly with weird fetishes.”

“They don’t let an Alpha older than 10 years an Omega’s age take him without full consent.”

“What if he forces you to consent?”

“You worry too much, Scott.”

Stiles leaned his head back against the tree, continuing to drink from the bottle. Scott looked like he was about to steal it from him and Stiles really wished he could get his best friend drunk too. But Scott was a werewolf and he needed to drive Stiles home when the bottle was empty.

“I’m gonna miss you,” Scott said softly.

“Stop talking about me like I’m marching off to my death.”

“I won’t be able to see you for a while.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Stiles said. “I’m not going with anyone.”

“ _Stiles_.”

He hated when Scott did that, sounded so disappointed in him. Stiles knew that Scott wanted him to be happy and to fulfill his duties. But those two things didn’t mix for him.

Because he was 15 and an Omega human and about to make his “choice” tomorrow and it was just too much. Everything was too much and he wanted to escape and live on a farm somewhere with Scott and Allison and be the cool uncle to their kids.

Scott was lucky. He had been born a Beta werewolf and his life was filled with privileges because of that. His werewolf dad had left his human mom while she was pregnant, but Melissa was a badass and managed to raise Scott and get her nursing degree. Scott now had a Beta human promised to him as soon as he turned 18 and Allison was as in love with him as he was with her.

Betas had it easy.

Omegas had it the worst.

He was supposed to be quiet and timid and submissive and tender and respectful and graceful and a ton of other things he just _wasn’t_. Constant supervision was a must as was not showing too much skin in public and if he ever said a rude thing he would be scoffed at and then lectured for hours. He couldn’t smoke or drink or eat junk food. Even prescription medicine was a last resort if there weren’t herbs that could do the same thing. An Omega’s body was a sacred and rare thing; it was made to be treated right and only pleasured by one Alpha for the rest of an Omega’s life. (Even masturbation was frowned upon and if it were illegal Stiles would probably have a life sentence.)

And tomorrow was the day he and four other Omegas in Beacon Hills would be showcased off to a ton of Alphas (werewolves and humans alike) so that they could make a choice (and it really wasn’t a choice at all) to get mated and be kept as little at-home Omegas to take care of the kids and do whatever their Alpha wanted.

Basically, tomorrow Stiles was being stripped of his freedom and would probably be spending the night tied to some Alpha pervert’s bed and be made to cry and beg.

Hence why he was getting drunk.

“You’ve almost finished the bottle,” Scott said, his voice panicky. “Your dad is going to kill me.”

“Prob’ly,” Stiles slurred, bringing the bottle to his lips again.

Only to have it snatched from him. He frowned, making grabby hands at Scott who just shook his head. Scott placed the bottle on the ground before pulling Stiles to his feet. It was easier said than done though, with Stiles falling all over Scott and stumbling with every step they took.

They made it to Scott’s car eventually and Scott had to buckle him into his seat when they got there. It was embarrassing (even in his drunken state he could tell), but he let him do it anyway.

The drive back to the Stilinski house was quiet and Stiles was feeling foggy and sleepy when Scott grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

“It’s gonna be okay, Stiles.”

And despite Scott being almost always wrong about big life moments, Stiles really hoped that he was right. Because tomorrow really was the beginning of the rest of his life…and also the end of it.

And that scared the shit out of him.

**OoOoOoO**

He regretted getting drunk when he woke up the next morning. He really did.

It wasn’t even the headache or the dryness in his mouth; it was the activity buzzing around him as soon as he opened his eyes. Stiles squinted, looking at the clock on his nightstand.

Nine AM.

He groaned, turning his head and only just then realizing that his head was cushioned on someone’s lap and a hand was carding through his hair, massaging his scalp while another hand rubbed circles on his chest.

“You’re not Scott,” he mumbled, pressing his cheek against Allison’s flat stomach.

She giggled, patting his chest and leaning down to kiss the tip of his nose. “No, I’m definitely not.”

Being an Omega came with a lot of pressure, but there was one perk. Omegas were reliant on warm and appraising touches and being cuddled and held all the time definitely wasn’t a bad thing. His dad pulled him into a warm hug at least five times a day. Ms. McCall smoothed his clothes whenever she saw him, kissing his cheeks and smiled fondly at him. Scott gave him bro-hugs and always had an arm around his shoulders and when they were younger and Stiles got teased, Scott would hold his hand and cuddle him whenever he slept over. Allison was the best though with shoulder massages and Eskimo kisses and combing his hair and loud kisses against his skin.

It was nice that he had people in his life didn’t shy away from physical affection. He liked it and it was one of the things his mentors actually thought was an excellent thing in his life. Of course it was something he had nothing to do with, but he let himself take a bit of the credit.

“Is Sleeping Beauty finally awake?”

Stiles opened his eyes all the way, wincing at the bright light and seeing his father standing in front of his bed. His arms were folded across his chest and he looked angry and—

“You know,” Stiles groaned, placing a hand over his face.

“Yeah, I know, Stiles,” his father said. “Do you have any idea how stupid that was? The town is filled with Alphas tonight. What if one had come after you last night? Scott wouldn’t be able to fight an Alpha werewolf off, you were drunk, you could have been forced to do something and then you’d be stuck with a shitty Alpha for the rest of your life.”

He had a point. Well, several points actually.

“Nothing happened, Dad.”

“I don’t care that nothing happened, I care that something could have happened,” the Sheriff continued. “Stiles, you have so many options for a good Alpha. You’re the Sheriff’s son: Alphas are going to be lining up to please you. You’re going to have _options_. I know you hate this, but your mother picked me in the same way and you know we were happy.”

And here came the Mom Card.

She had died four years ago and his dad had never been the same. Now his dad had to let go of Stiles and he should have been more sensitive to his dad’s feelings.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” Stiles said, sitting up.

John just sighed, leaning down to pull Stiles into a hug. “Not all Alphas are what you think they are. I’m not too bad, right?”

“No, Dad, you’re awesome,” Stiles said, patting his dad on the back.

And his dad was an awesome Alpha. His mom had told him stories about how his dad had waited for her and asked if she was okay with everything and had been a perfect and respectable gentleman and hadn’t treated her like she was made of glass.

But Alphas like his dad were one in a million and he couldn’t see his chances being as good as his mom’s.

“Where’s Scott?” Stiles asked once he had pulled away from his dad, Allison draping over his shoulders as he did.

“Outside being lectured,” Allison said, rubbing his shoulders. “You should shower and eat breakfast.”

“Yeah,” Stiles sighed, leaning his head back on Allison’s shoulder. “I guess I should.”

“Melissa’s going to help Allison get you ready,” John said, his eyes filling with tears. “Stiles, no matter what happens tonight I want you to know that I will always love you and be there for you and—”

“Dad, can we save this for tonight, please?”

“You’re right,” the Sheriff nodded. “I’ll go get Scott. I’ll see you soon.”

His dad inched his way toward the door, looking so proud and sad as he slipped out of the room. He didn’t know why he was being so dramatic; they were going to eat breakfast together in less than an hour.

Scott came in soon after, glaring angrily at Stiles. “I’m grounded because I helped you sneak out. After the ball tonight I can’t leave my house except for school for a week.”

He plopped down on the bed on the other side of Stiles; the three of them just sitting there huddled together.

“Sorry,” Stiles said, feeling Allison wrap her arms around him and Scott huddle closer to him. “I just wanted my freedom.”

“I know,” Scott sighed. “You should shower though. You smell like alcohol and wet leaves.”

“Fine,” Stiles said, getting to his feet. “You two better not fool around in my bed.”

“Gross, dude,” Scott said, wrinkling up his nose. “It smells like you jacking off, not exactly something I want to fool around in.”

And Stiles was grateful for that.

He made his way to his adjoined bathroom, closing the door behind him and giving a heavy sigh. Before he had felt like he had all the time in the world. But now it was Saturday morning and his first heat started Monday and he turned 16 in two weeks and he just wished he were a Beta. Because if he were a Beta he’d be able to enjoy all of the festivities today with Scott and Allison and maybe make out with a random Beta and maybe even wear shorts. Because God forbid someone saw his calves.

But he was an Omega and people were going to be staring at him all day and then tonight he’d have to be creeped on by 50 different Alphas and he’d have to pick the least creepy one to spend the rest of his life with.

He started the shower, stripping off his clothes and looking at his reflection in the mirror. His hair was too long and he was tempted to just buzz it all off using the razor under the sink but his dad would murder him. At least he was able to keep it short though, some Omega males had it past their shoulders so that it could be styled. He couldn’t see the appeal, but if it made them happy he wasn’t going to judge.

After taking a shower he towel-dried his hair, making it stick up in weird angles, before slipping into his robe that was hanging on the back of the bathroom door. He stepped into his room, tying the belt around his waist before being assaulted by the sights and sounds of his room.

There were people in his room. A lot of people. People he didn’t know. Some people were packing things into boxes and other people were throwing things away. Allison and Scott were sitting on his bed, huddled together and watching the flurry of movements with slightly panicked expressions.

One of the workers spotted him and a wide smile came across his face. He made his way across the room to him, holding out a tray to him and bowing down and okay, this was weird.

“Your breakfast, Omega Stilinski,” he said.

“Uh, thanks,” Stiles said, taking the tray. “Who are you?”

“My name is Malcolm and I’m Ms. Morrell’s assistant.”

Oh. That made sense. Ms. Morrell was his mentor and the one who had been educating him on how to be a proper Omega ever since he was born. She was supposed to be here but he couldn’t spot her in the crowd of people in his bedroom.

“Ms. Morrell will be here in an hour due to another appointment,” Malcolm said. “You shouldn’t worry though. Just sit with your companions and eat, you’ll need your strength for today.”

It was really hard for him not to tell Malcolm that it was the 21st century and that he could modernize his language a bit, but he let it slide. He walked across the room, dodging people as he went, and sat on his bed next to Scott and Allison.

“What’s going on?” he asked them, scowling at his breakfast.

“They’re packing your things,” Allison said. “As soon as you choose your Alpha tonight, all of your belongings will be shipped to your Alpha’s home.”

“But they’re putting things in trash bags,” Stiles said, eyeing a man stuffing an old science project into a black bag.

“Don’t worry, we’ve been watching them,” Scott assured. “They tried to throw away your necklace with your mom’s wedding ring on it because they thought it was from an admirer. I saved it though.”

Scott took the necklace out of his pocket and handed it to Stiles who sighed in relief. He put it around his neck, tucking the chain under his robe.

“You should eat,” Allison said. “We’ll keep an eye on them.”

“I thought I was going to have breakfast with my dad.”

“He’s in town setting up security for today,” Scott said. “You’ll see him later.”

Stiles felt his stomach churn in anxiety. This was already going to be the worst day of his life, he didn’t need it getting worse by not being able to see his dad. At least Scott and Allison would be by his side for the rest of the day.

He started to eat his breakfast (an unsweetened grapefruit, egg white and spinach omelet, whole grain toast with cottage cheese aka bland and healthy), trying to block out the people around him. A few times Scott had to get up to talk a worker out of throwing something away, but it seemed that they knew what they were doing. Eventually they had to get off of his bed so that the sheets could be tossed in the trash as well.

Thirty minutes had passed and the last of the moving crew was filing out, all carrying neatly closed cardboard boxes and trash bags that were so full they looked like they were about to burst. Malcolm was still in the room though, checking off things on his to-do list and mumbling to himself. There was a knock on the bedroom door and Stiles couldn’t even tell them to come in when Malcolm opened the door and ushered them inside.

It was Ms. McCall and Stiles finally felt some ease come over him. There was no way she would ever be a replacement for his mom, but she treated him like her own son and that was something that he loved. Malcolm took his empty tray from him before heading out of the room, giving them some privacy.

“How are you feeling?” Melissa asked, stepping forward and hugging him, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Like shit.”

“ _Stiles_ ,” Scott and Melissa scolded in unison.

“What?” he asked. “You’re the only people I can cuss around; I’m trying to get my fill in.”

“That still doesn’t mean you should do it,” Melissa said, placing her hands on his shoulders and sighing. “It’s okay to be nervous. But I think I have some information that will make you less nervous.”

“Like what?”

“One of the nurses I work with has an Alpha nephew,” she said. “Apparently he told her all about the Alpha dinner last night and she told me everything.”

“She told you about the Alphas?” Allison asked.

“Yeah,” Melissa nodded. “And it sounds like you’re going to have a lot of good options, Stiles.”

He didn’t care. He really didn’t care. He didn’t want to hear about the Alphas and how much money they had or how nice they pretended to be when there were other people around.

“There are 50 of them,” Melissa continued. “The oldest is in his 40s and the youngest is 18. Forty men and ten women. None of them have bad track records, but the more money someone has the easier it is for them to erase any past mistakes. Alpha Richardson lives in a castle in the South and he’s in his early 30s and apparently he’s interested in you, Stiles.”

His heart sped up at that and he looked from Melissa to Scott and Allison and then back again. “What? Why me?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “He may have looked up your file and found you interesting.”

He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. If the Alpha was decent then it was better than living with someone who treated him like he was nothing. But if the Alpha was a douchebag he’d try to charm Stiles and convince him to pick him and then show who he really was as soon as they headed to his castle.

Living in a castle sounded nice though. There would be a lot of rooms to hide in.

“Nothing’s set in stone,” Melissa said. “You can deny this Alpha and no one will think any less of you. Just go with your gut. I’ll see you tonight.”

“You’re not going to help me get ready?” Stiles asked.

“No, Ms. Morrell has put together a team,” she said. “Scott and Allison are going to stay with you, but I won’t see you until the ball.”

Seriously. This day really couldn’t get any worse. After another round of hugging and kissing, Melissa said her goodbyes, glaring at Scott as she went and saying that his grounding officially started tomorrow.

The door hadn’t even completely closed before Malcolm, Ms. Morrell, and three other people came strolling in. He couldn’t even get a word of greeting in before Ms. Morrell wrapped her arms around his shoulders, lightly patting him on the back.

“It’s good to see you, Stiles,” she said, smiling her creepily serene smile. “You’ve showered and eaten, that’s good.”

Ms. Morrell was nice and smart and knew what she was doing, but that didn’t stop her from scaring the shit out of him sometimes. He had no idea what she was thinking and she always seemed to have this glint in her eye like she knew something about him that he didn’t even know about himself. She respected him though and knew what he was comfortable doing and not doing.

“So, what’s on the agenda for the day?” he asked.

She didn’t answer him right away, sitting down at his desk chair (his desk looking strangely empty and he was glad that he had seen his laptop taped up in a cardboard box rather than thrown into a trash bag). Malcolm walked over to her, handing her his clipboard. She skimmed through it, flipping though a few pages, before looking at the other three people who had walked in with her and nodding. The three workers nodded back before leaving the room in an orderly fashion.

“First we’re going to get you ready for the opening ceremony,” she said. “That starts in two hours, so we have just enough time.”

It probably wasn’t a good idea to point out that it took him less than ten minutes to get ready most mornings.

“After the ceremony you’ll eat lunch with the other four Omegas and their mentors,” she continued. “Then you’ll come here to change into more comfortable clothes to enjoy the festival for a few hours with Scott and Allison. At five you’ll come back home for the last time to get ready for the ball. At the ball there will be a brief introduction before dinner and then dancing and socializing. After that you’ll pick your Alpha at the closing ceremony. Then you’ll go back to your Alpha’s hotel room and begin the mating bond.”

She made everything sound so easy and clinical and orderly. He knew that mentors weren’t supposed to have strong emotional bonds with their Omegas, but a little emotion couldn’t hurt.

The three workers she had sent out returned then, two were carrying suit bags and one was carrying a duffel bag. Stiles really didn’t want to know what was in there, but he was probably going to find out sooner rather than later.

“Scott, Allison, you two can head back home to get ready for the opening ceremony,” Ms. Morrell said.

“Well, Allison was going to help out and Scott is here for moral support,” Stiles said.

“Plans have changed, Stiles,” she said, giving pointed looks to Scott and Allison.

Scott was the first to stand up, looking angrily at Ms. Morrell before throwing his arms around Stiles. “At least we’ll have fun at the festival today.”

“Yeah, we sure will,” Stiles sighed, hugging his best friend back.

Once they had parted it was Allison who flung her arms around him, pressing a noisy kiss to his cheek before rubbing their noses together. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

He just gave a short nod and as soon as she untangled herself from his arms, they were ushered out. The door shut behind them and a couple of minutes passed before one of the workers nodded to Ms. Morrell. “They’re gone.”

“Let’s get started,” Ms. Morrell said.

And this just got extremely shady extremely fast.

One of the workers grabbed the belt of his robe and he couldn’t even let out a syllable of discomfort before it was untied and the robe was pushed off of him. He was 99.99% sure that they weren’t supposed to be doing this. Omegas weren’t supposed to be seen naked; this was probably illegal in so many ways. He covered his privates with his hands, only to have them shoved away by one of the workers.

“Stiles, you do remember the preparation process from your textbook, don’t you?” Ms. Morrell asked, her tone a mixture of amusement and disapproval.

It was kind of hard to think while five people were staring at his naked body, but he tried anyway. He knew that people were supposed to help him get ready, but he just assumed that there would be people messing with his clothes and his hair. There had been a section about a group of helpers and something about perfecting and shaving, but he assumed that had been for girls and—

“Oh God,” he groaned, looking at Ms. Morrell.

“All Omega duties are the same regardless of gender,” she said.

“But I like my little imperfections and my hairiness.”

“Stiles, I’ve been very open to your opinions,” she said. “I’ve let you continue to wear the clothes you want to wear and to keep your hair short and I haven’t even said anything about your video game addiction.”

“It’s not an addiction.”

“You have over 100 hours saved for every Final Fantasy game.”

Okay she had a point.

“You’re the first Omega I’ve ever mentored and I want to be able to continue in this line of work after today,” she continued. “You know that I respect you and your unorthodox ways, Stiles, but I just need this one final day for you to play by my rules. Can you do that for me?”

He hated that she freaked him out and made him feel bad at the same time. There was no way she was ever going to have trouble finding work. She was an evil genius.

“All right,” he sighed. “Do your worst, Cinna.”

She grinned victoriously at that, finally standing up and walking to stand in front of him with the team huddled around her. “Whatever you say, Katniss.”

Because he might as well be marching to his death in a bloody battle with only one victor.

“We should give him hair extensions,” one of the workers proposed. “Alpha’s like longer hair.”

He grimaced, looking at Ms. Morrell who just shook her head. “That was a deal that I made a long time ago. Just be happy I’ve convinced him to grow it out this much.”

“‘This much’?” the worker repeated. “But there’s barely anything there.”

“Buzz cut, Marianne,” Ms. Morrell said.

And apparently that was the worst thing any of them had ever heard because all of their faces were suddenly alit with horror.

“I can run my hand through it; it’s fine,” Stiles said. “Can we hurry this up though? I’d like to at least get some pants on.”

This struck even more horror to their faces.

“He’s so pushy,” Marianne (loudly) whispered to another worker. “I’ve never seen an Omega this mouthy before.”

“Marco, start the analysis,” Ms. Morrell said. “Malcolm, what’s the status on the Alphas?”

“All are eager to meet him,” Malcolm said. “Alpha Richardson more than anyone else though.”

“And what about Hale?”

“Hale?” Malcolm repeated, his nose scrunching up. “He was an hour late to the dinner last night and was quiet whenever someone spoke to him. Why are you wondering about him?”

“I just wanted to know if he was going to show up,” she shrugged. “What do you think his chances of showing up to the festivities today are?”

“Slim,” Malcolm reported. “He’ll probably make it to the opening and closing ceremonies just to keep his perfect attendance.”

“It’s a shame he doesn’t want a mate,” Ms. Morrell said. “He’s only seven years older than Stiles, Stiles has experience with werewolves, and the Hale family is all old money. On paper they make a good match.”

“On paper isn’t everything.”

“Of course,” she said. “That’s why I’m trying to get him with Alpha Richardson. On paper they’re average, but I feel like there could be a spark there.”

“I definitely agree,” he said earnestly.

Stiles would have kept eavesdropping if Marco hadn’t jabbed him right below his ear and then in his neck.

“Oh, sh- _ugar_ cookies!”

“Nice save,” Marco said, his voice ridiculously deep.

“Thanks,” Stiles said, rubbing his neck. “What’s up with the jabbing?”

“You have a lot of moles,” Marco said. “None of them are cancerous, but they aren’t exactly attractive. Should we cover them up for the day and then zap them during night preparations?”

No. Nope. Not gonna happen. Not even in your dreams, pal.

“I like the moles,” the third worker said.

“I agree with Mora,” Ms. Morrell said. “Keep them.”

“His eyebrows need tweezing though.”

“He’s awfully pale.”

“At least he has a nice mouth; we can definitely use that to our advantage.”

“His eyes are lovely too.”

“Look at how much arm hair he has. That’s going to take forever to wax off.”

“He has dirt under his fingernails, I thought he already showered.”

He felt his eye start to twitch in annoyance and he looked to Ms. Morrell who was still talking to Malcolm.

“Can we do introductions or something?” Stiles asked. “I’d love to know what’s going on.”

Everyone stopped then, turning to Ms. Morrell who just shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Malcolm, please quickly inform Stiles of everything.”

“Of course,” Malcolm nodded before pointing to Marianne. “This is Marianne; she’ll be taking care of your hair—all of your hair. Marco is in charge of your skin. Mora will be in charge of the details and attire.”

“And you?” Stiles asked. “What are you in charge of?”

“Making sure you get to all of the events on time and scoping out the Alphas for you,” Malcolm said. “Is that everything you need to know?”

No, it definitely wasn’t all that he wanted to know. But time was running short and he knew Ms. Morrell would start giving him a death glare if he tried to stall with questions.

“That’s it,” Stiles said. “Let’s just get this entire thing over with.”

“Marianne,” Ms. Morrell said. “You go first.”

The dangerous glint in Marianne’s eyes worried him, but he tried to put on a brave face, smiling nervously before being ushered into the bathroom.

**OoOoOoO**

There was less than an hour till the opening ceremony. Malcolm was a wreck. Everyone was arguing. They had given him his robe back.

This wasn’t going to end well.

Marianne had taken up most of their time by waxing every single inch of him (except for his eyebrows and the hair on his head) and now apparently they were running out of time. He couldn’t bring himself to care too much though since his thoughts were preoccupied with how not fun growing back his pubes was going to be.

“I still think he should use tanner,” Marco said, arms folded across his chest as he glared down Mora.

“Pale is in,” she said, glaring right back. “Especially for Omegas.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m the skin expert, Mora.”

“And I’m pretty sure that you’re an idiot.”

“Even if pale’s in, he’s too pale.”

“His skin tone is fine,” she shot back. “Maybe you should worry about the giant pimple in the middle of his forehead.”

It definitely wasn’t giant.

“Maybe I will,” Marco said, reaching into the Duffel Bag of Doom (working title) and taking out a small container.

He unscrewed the lid before dabbing his finger in some kind of white cream and then jabbing him on the forehead. Marco was a fan of jabbing.

“If we’re going to keep looking like you’re allergic to the sun we need to get started on evening out your skin,” Marco said. “You’re oily in some places and flaky in others. I thought Omegas were supposed to have good skin.”

Stiles chose not to say anything to that, just nodding along and not wincing too much when Marco unrobed him again.

“How are you feeling, Stiles?” Ms. Morrell asked. She hadn’t even moved from his desk, clipboard still in front of her.

“Nervous,” he said, eyeing Marco as he rubbed green goo onto his arms. “Anxious. Extremely uncomfortable.”

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ve been talking to a friend of mine and word has already spread that Alpha Richardson only has eyes for you. You just have to choose him at the closing ceremony and everything will be smooth sailing from there.”

“I don’t even know this guy.”

“He’s great,” Ms. Morrell assured. “Very handsome, very rich, very intelligent. The rest of your life will be perfect.”

Except he didn’t want that. He wanted to either pick someone on his own time or just never pick anyone at all. But society wouldn’t be too happy about that.

“Awesome.”

“Malcolm, how are we doing on time?” she asked.

“Terribly,” Malcolm said, pacing back and forth across his room. “We need to be there in 40 minutes and it’s a ten minute drive and we should afford 15 minutes to enable we get there in time.”

“Hurry up, Marco,” Ms. Morrell ordered.

“You can’t rush perfection,” he said, rubbing oil that smelled like grass onto Stiles’ chest.

“And you call that perfection?” Mora said under her breath.

“Don’t you have something you need to sew?”

“No, I had everything done weeks ago and double checked last night like we were supposed to.”

Marco just hissed, turning Stiles around and rubbing oil onto his ass and this was just uncomfortable. He had thought that the first person to see him naked would be his Alpha, not a ragtag group of Betas who were more intent on arguing than doing their job.

After ten more minutes of rubbing and scrubbing and doing whatever else Marco saw fit, he felt beyond strange. He was hairless and slimy and felt worse than he had when he had woken up that morning. Stiles couldn’t even process anything though, being shoved back into his bathroom and instructed to rinse off in the shower. Mora was rustling around in her bag when he got back out and she pointed toward the toilet.

“Okay, first some instant whitening strips and then I’m going to brush your teeth, floss, mouth wash, and then brush again,” she listed off. “Then I’ll trim your nails and dress you. Marianne will do your eyebrows and hair and I’ll finish it off with making you smell all nice and pretty. Questions?”

“We have less than 15 minutes.”

“I know.”

“You can’t do all that in less than 15 minutes.”

“Oh I will.”

And she did. After attending to everything she started throwing clothes at him (laughing when he asked if he could wear boxers instead of the briefs she had given him). Marianne did his hair while Marco started lint rolling him and Mora spritzed him with something that smelled like lemons and vanilla.

“All right, let’s go,” Malcolm said once Mora had sprayed him one last time.

“Uh, wait,” Stiles said. “Can’t I at least see what I look like?”

They all looked at him strangely before shrugging, Ms. Morrell allowing him 30 seconds to look at himself in the full-length mirror in the hall bathroom. Apparently they couldn’t understand why he’d want to look at himself since he was supposed to be a spectacle for other people.

Or some shit like that.

He turned the bathroom light on, taking a deep breath before stepping in front of the mirror. It was a relief that he still looked like himself. Sure he definitely looked more presentable than he ever had, but he was still Stiles. The light gray suit was not his style and neither was the maroon button down underneath it, but it didn’t look too terrible. His hair was slicked back and his eyebrows were strangely defined and his shoes were killing his feet already, but it was better than he thought it would be.

“Stiles,” Ms. Morrell said from the door. “We have to go.”

“Yeah, I’m coming,” he nodded, looking at his reflection one more time before turning the light off and following her down the hall.

**OoOoOoO**

“Remember what we practiced?” Ms. Morrell asked as they walked backstage with Malcolm.

“Yeah, shoulders back, chest out, the column of my pale delectable neck exposed to the douchebag Alphas.”

“ _Stiles_.”

“Shoulders back, chest out, neck exposed,” he sighed.

She gave him a tight smile before giving him a quick hug. “Opening ceremony is easy. Mayor Argent will talk and then he’ll call the name of each Alpha who will walk on stage and take their seat. Omegas will come out one at a time; you’re the oldest so you’re last. You’ll be on stage for 30 seconds and then you’ll be exit the stage and follow Malcolm to where I’ll be waiting at the restaurant for lunch.”

“Right, easy,” he nodded. “Do you know where my dad is? Or Ms. McCall? Scott and Allison? Anyone I call friend?”

“In the audience,” she said. “Scott and Allison will meet you at your house after lunch so that you can change and then enjoy the festival. You’ll see your dad and Melissa at the ball.”

Great. So he wouldn’t be seeing a friendly face for a few hours. Ms. Morrell was nice enough but he knew this entire thing for her was just about outdoing the other mentors by scoring him the best Alpha.

“Now go on,” she said, ushering him toward where the four other Omegas were standing.

He gave her a thumbs up before slowly making his way toward the group. Even though he was the oldest, it was just by less than a year. All of them were 15, but some had just recently turned that age. He was turning 16 in two weeks and he knew that the second oldest was a month away from her own birthday.

“Hey guys,” he greeted, giving an awkward wave as four sets of eyes snapped toward him.

“Hello Omega Stilinski,” Holly sniffed, looking at her nails. “You’re a little late.”

“Actually I think I’m right on time.”

“No,” Nick said, shaking his head. “Definitely late.”

Well the lunch today definitely wasn’t going to be fun.

The other two, Lana and Lily, were twins and they just giggled and rolled their eyes at him before going back to their conversation. He wished he could escape from the group or at least text someone, but his phone had gotten packed up with the rest of his stuff so he was alone.

After a few minutes of waiting he heard the sound of a microphone being tapped before an old and gravelly voice filled hall.

“Hello everyone and welcome to this year’s Spring Festival opening ceremony,” Mayor Argent said.

They called it the Spring Festival like the main purpose wasn’t to marry off their of age Omegas. It made him sick to his stomach.

“First I would like to thank everyone for coming before we begin the opening ceremony,” he continued. “As always I will announce the Alphas first. Some you might recognize from last year.”

And so it began. He remembered every year before sitting in the audience with his dad and watching the Alphas with interest. When he was a kid he thought the process was romantic and would always tell people he was looking out for his future husband.

Now he wanted to puke into the nearest potted plant.

The other four Omegas were peaking around the curtain at the Alphas, but he stayed back, tuning them all out.

“Alpha Derek James Hale, 22 years-old, from Beacon Hills originally, currently residing in his family’s estate just an hour away.”

There was silence and then murmuring from the crowd. Mayor Argent spoke again.

“Alpha Derek James Hale.”

More murmuring.

“ _Alpha Hale_.”

Even more murmuring and now Mayor Argent sounded pissed.

“Well, it appears that Alpha Hale won’t be able to attend the opening ceremony, hopefully he’ll join us tonight.”

And so it continued. He only paid attention for one other name.

“Alpha Duncan Jacob Richardson, 33 years-old, from Los Angeles, currently living in Southern California.”

There were giggles and hushed whispers from the audience at that and even his fellow Omegas seemed excited. After the rest of the names it was time for the Omegas to be herded out. Lana went first and then Lily. Nick was after that and then it was Holly, practically strutting onto the stage and tossing her long blonde hair over her shoulder as she went.

“Omega Genim Rupert Stilinski.”

God he hated his full name.

Taking a deep breath, he brought his shoulders back and his chest forward and walking onto the stage, avoiding the row of Alphas at all cost. He stood in the middle, making sure his neck was on display for the (douchebags, assholes, perverts) Alphas behind him.

“Birthday is April 8th; his mentor is Marin Morrell, straight As in all of his classes along with perfect attendance, son of Sheriff Alpha John and the late Omega Aria Stilinski.”

It was funny that everyone said that Omegas had the choice over their Alpha. Because Alphas were allowed to say no and if a specific Alpha had their eye on you there was no way other Alphas would accept a proposal from an Omega. It really was an Alpha’s choice despite Omegas being the ones to actually say something.

Eventually his 30 seconds were over and he gave a shaky smile before heading off stage. Malcolm was there waiting for him and ushered him off of the stage and outside. The restaurant was across the street and rented out for just the Omegas and their mentors.

Ms. Morrell was already sitting at the table with the other Omegas and their mentors. He gave her a thumbs up and she smiled, standing up to hug him.

“I was watching it on the TV in here,” she said. “You looked a little nervous, but other than that you were perfect.”

“Thanks,” he said, sitting down next to her and choosing to ignore everyone but her for the lunch. “So what’s on the menu and when can I finally head home?”

“Salad, salmon, and roasted potatoes,” she said, placing her napkin in her lap and giving him a look that said he should do the same. “We’ll be here for an hour and then Malcolm will take you home and the team will get you changed.”

An hour of eating tiny healthy and bland foods and pretending to like people he would most likely never see again for the rest of his life?

He could do that.

**OoOoOoO**

“I hate people,” Stiles groaned, his head once again in Allison’s lap and his feet in Scott’s. “Especially Holly and her haughty attitude.”

“Haughty Holly,” Scott supplied.

“Nice one, McCall,” Stiles said, holding out his fist for Scott to fist bump before grabbing a handful of potato chips and cramming them in his mouth. “I hate healthy food too.”

“I know, sweetie,” Allison said, running her fingers through his hair. “On the bright side we can smuggle you funnel cakes and corndogs today.”

“And this is why I love you guys,” he said.

The door to his bedroom opened and he shoved the bag of potato chips into Scott’s hands before sitting up. Marianna and Mora walked in, smiling brightly at him.

“This will just take 15 minutes, tops,” Mora said. “It’s a much more casual look.”

He couldn’t see their definition of casual matching his of jeans and a t-shirt, but it was probably more comfortable than his suit. Mora made him strip in the bedroom (graciously allowing him to leave his underwear on) and he was pulling on a pair of khaki pants when he spotted her getting out a white ribbon from her bag.

The ribbons acted as signifiers and he had worn his gold one during the festival since he was a baby. Now since he was of age he finally got to wear the white one. Mated Alphas wore red on their left hand and unmated wore red on their right. The same went for Betas except they wore blue (Allison and Scott both having tied each other’s ribbons to their left hands just a few minutes ago).

After he finished tucking his blue button down shirt into his pants, Marianne fastened his belt for him and Mora tied the white ribbon around his right hand. He gave a small smile in thanks before Marianne threw a wet towel over his head and started to violently rub at his hair.

He could hear suppressed laughs from Scott and he managed to not throw him the middle finger. Marianne finished with his hair, leaving some gel from previously in it, but styling it so that it looked more like how he normally wore it.

“All right,” Mora said, stepping back to look at him after securing his grandfather’s watch around his left wrist. “Go have fun. Malcolm will make sure you get back to us at five.”

“Thanks,” he said, nodding before quickly heading out the door with Scott and Allison right behind him.

As soon as they exited the house he felt free in a way he hadn’t felt since he had woken up that morning. Despite hating the mating aspect of the festival, the festival itself was always fun. There was free food and games and live music and he had actually used to look forward to it. This year it was bittersweet though since he knew he’d only be attending the festival that his new hometown would host from then on.

Sensing his sadness, Scott wrapped an arm around his shoulders and Allison laced their fingers together.

“Let’s go have fun,” Scott said.

“Yeah,” Stiles nodded. “Good plan, buddy.”

And it was fun for the first hour. They played games at different booths (Allison winning Scott a stuffed wolf which he proudly carried around) and Scott and Allison smuggled him different fried foods, watching out for him to make sure no one of importance was watching. He still had two hours until he needed to head back to the house when someone tugged on his pant leg. Stiles looked down, seeing a little boy who was probably just starting elementary school with a gold ribbon tied around his right hand.

“You were one of the Omegas at the ceremony,” he said.

“Yeah,” Stiles said, crouching down in front of him. “And you’re an Omega too.”

“I don’t wanna be though,” he said, frowning. “My mommy says that it’s a gift to be born an Omega, but I don’t get it.”

“I don’t get it either,” Stiles said, ruffling the boy’s hair and forcing a smile. “But it’s not too bad.”

That was a huge lie, but he wasn’t going to admit that to a little boy.

“Well, I hope you get a good Alpha,” the little boy said before motioning for Stiles to come closer.

He did and the little boy stuck a flower in his hair, smiling brightly when it stayed in place.

“My mommy says that Omegas are supposed to be pretty.”

“Oh, uh, thanks,” Stiles nodded, grabbing the flower and tucking it behind his ear before grinning. “You should find your mom though, she’s probably wondering where you are.”

“Yeah, good luck tonight!”

“Thanks,” Stiles said. “And good luck in the future.”

The little boy smiled again before dashing back into the crowd. Stiles sighed, standing back up and shoving his hands into his pockets.

“That was adorable.”

Well it was better to get this over with now.

“Thanks,” Stiles said dryly, turning around to face Jackson and Lydia.

“No, really, Stilinski,” Jackson said. “That was so cute. Are you going to be that sweet with your kids someday?”

“I don’t know, will you?” Stiles asked, smiling at Lydia. “Hey Lydia.”

She was apparently hoping he wouldn’t say anything though, slowly turning her head before giving him a tight smile. “Hi Stiles.”

At least she remembered his name this time.

Lydia was an Alpha and he had been crazy about her for years. His plan had always been to ask her to be his Alpha at the ceremony, but then she had been caught with Jackson (who he still had trouble believing was an Omega sometimes) a year ago and they had been forced to get mated. A thing like that would be a huge scandal and looked down upon, but Jackson and Lydia still managed to rule over everyone else, taking absolutely zero shit.

“You’re looking very handsome, Stiles,” Jackson said, annoying little snarky smirk all over his stupid face.

Calling an Omega handsome was supposedly an insult since they were supposed to be “beautiful” and “pretty”. He’d take it as a compliment though.

“Thanks, so do you.”

“Thank you,” Jackson said, smile getting wider.

Because “handsome” was actually a compliment to mated Omegas and Goddamn stupid technicalities.

“So where are your little Beta henchmen?” Jackson asked.

“Yeah, where is Allison?” Lydia asked, finally joining in on the conversation and looking around.

“Funnel cake stand,” Stiles said, looking over there to see Scott and Allison holding hands toward the front of the line.

“Hopefully just for themselves though,” Jackson said. “I don’t want you getting fat, Stiles. Your Alpha probably won’t like that.”

_Well, I don’t give a shit what my Alpha would like, jackass._

“Yeah, it’s just for them.”

“Good,” Jackson said, eyeing Stiles up and down and nodding. “Good luck tonight, Stilinski.”

“Thanks?”

Okay now this was weird.

“No, I’m being serious,” he said, walking forward and putting his hands on Stiles’ shoulders. “I got lucky with my Alpha. I can’t even imagine what you’re going through right now. Choose wisely and I’d definitely suggest not picking Alpha Richardson.”

Stiles raised his eyebrows at that, looking from Jackson to Lydia and then back again. “Why?”

“Just… don’t,” Jackson said. “Anyone but him.”

With a final nod they were heading back into the crowd. And Stiles had no idea what to think of that. He was 99% sure that Jackson hated him so he didn’t know if he should take him seriously or not. Was Alpha Richardson an amazing Alpha and Stiles should definitely pick him or was he the worst Alpha to ever walk the earth and he should stay very far away?

He had no idea.

Scott and Allison came back soon after that, eating the funnel cake with powdered sugar all over their fingers and he wasn’t even hungry anymore. They offered him some but he declined, still thinking about what Jackson had said.

“Man, are you all right?” Scott asked after a while.

“Yeah…no.”

“What’s wrong?” Allison asked, concern flooding her voice.

“I’m just really nervous for tonight,” he said, trying to shrug it off as no big deal.

“I thought Alpha Richardson was a given for you though,” she said. “You shouldn’t worry too much.”

“You’re right,” he said, electing to just end the conversation instead of letting it drag on.

The festival continued on and apparently giving an of age Omega flowers was a tradition or something. Tons of people came up to him, slipping flowers into his hair or his pockets. He smiled and accepted them all and by five o’clock he was trying hard not to sneeze. Malcolm found them eating ice-cream at a picnic table and he was beaming when he saw that Stiles basically looked like a garden.

“It’s froyo, I swear,” Stiles said quickly, spooning the rest of the ice-cream (totally not froyo) quickly into his mouth before Malcolm could take it away from him.

“Well it looks like someone’s the favorite this year,” Malcolm said, smiling fondly and not even noticing the ice-cream.

“Favorite?” Stiles repeated. “Favorite what?”

“Favorite Omega,” Malcolm said. “Every year people bet on their favorites and who they’re going to pick. You and Alpha Richardson are the favorite couple and if you choose him and he accepts I’m going to get a very good pay raise.”

He felt sick to his stomach. All day he had but this, _this_ , was the absolute worst. People were betting on him like they did in a sport’s game and he knew the entire thing was vaguely Hunger Games-ish, but this just made it worse.

People were betting on his life and his future and who the father of his fucking children were going to be. So many people would lose money if he didn’t choose Alpha Richardson. People in poverty had probably bet on him since it was apparently such a sure thing that he would choose him.

The tiny sliver of choice that he had had to begin with was gone. He didn’t have a choice. He never had a choice and he was pissed.

And he was about to tell everyone how pissed he was when Malcolm grabbed him and dragged him away from Scott and Allison.

“You’ll see them at the ball with your father,” he said. “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine tonight, just pick Alpha Richardson.”

Now he felt like he was being brainwashed. Nothing about this day was good. Absolutely nothing.

**OoOoOoO**

“Well, our work here is done,” Marianne said, stepping back to eye his hair one last time. “And I’m going to be very rich by the end of the tonight.”

“And why’s that?” Stiles asked even though he already knew the answer.

“Because you are going to pick Alpha Richardson and I bet a lot of money on you two and I’ll get a raise,” she said. “I’ve been struggling with rent and this is going to really help me.”

Oh God this was getting worse with every passing second.

“Same here,” Mora said, finishing up her lint rolling. “I’ve got a son and I’ll finally be able to afford private school for him.”

This was the worst day of his life.

“My mom can finally retire,” Marco agreed.

And then they were all smiling at him like he was this beacon of hope and by giving up his freedom for the rest of his life he would be making everyone else’s life so much better.

He was going to puke.

And this was a really fucking expensive suit.

“Ready to go, Stiles?” Ms. Morrell asked from the door.

“I have to use the restroom,” he said. “I’ll be quick though.”

“Take your time,” she said, eyes following him as he dashed into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.

He placed his hands on the edges of the sink, looking up at himself in the mirror. He didn’t look sick but he felt sick. On the outside he looked better than he ever had, all clean-cut and proper in his black suit. On the inside he felt like he was going to fall apart. Escaping out of the bathroom window probably wasn’t an option, but he was prepared to try.

Except he couldn’t.

Straightening himself out, he nodded at his reflection before heading back into his room. Ms. Morrell was the only one there and she smiled at him. “It’s going to be all right, Stiles.”

He really hoped that she was right.

The drive to the venue was relatively short and he spent the entire time looking out the window. Ms. Morrell was silent next to him, tapping on her Blackberry. Malcolm, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck the entire drive. He kept telling Stiles all about Alpha Richardson and he just didn’t care.

They arrived and he walked quickly up the stairs and into the building. The ballroom was just up ahead and he was about to just walk in when Ms. Morrell grabbed his arm, steering him to the back of a line.

“You have to wait to make your entrance and be introduced,” she said. “Malcolm’s putting your name in the queue; try not to appear too excited.”

Excited. Because that was the word for it.

There were about ten people in front of him, all mated pairs or single Betas. An announcer called out each of their names before they headed into the ballroom to a round of light applause. After everyone arrived he would have to sit with the Omegas again to eat dinner before being showboated around to dance with all 50 Alphas.

“Omega Genim Rupert Stilinski and his mentor, Beta Marin Morrell.”

They didn’t get any applause. Instead they got complete silence and knowing smiles and he wondered how much money everyone had bet on him. He wondered how many people would be in debt (or ever more so) if he didn’t choose Alpha Richardson.

The Omega table was already filled when they sat down, Holly giving him an evil glare and he didn’t even want to think about her. He was content to just eat whatever food they put in front of him when a hand clamped down on his shoulder. Turning around, he expected to see some Alpha trying to make an early move, but instead it was his father.

“Dad,” he said, his face breaking out into a wide smile and a sense of relief coming over him.

“Hey, son,” the Sheriff greeted, hugging Stiles as soon as he stood up. “Nervous for your big night?”

“A bit,” he nodded. “Uh, you didn’t happen to bet on me, did you?”

“Of course not,” John said, shaking his head. “I’m not going to pressure you into picking someone through money.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Stiles said, going in for another hug.

“I’m gonna miss you,” the Sheriff said. “But I know that you’re going to make the right decision. I can’t wait to visit you.”

“We’ll see each other again before I leave.”

“I know, but this is the last time I’ll see you when you’re not someone else’s,” his dad said. “I’m just trying to enjoy these last few moments.”

“John,” Ms. Morrell said. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but it’s about to start.”

“Right,” John nodded, patting Stiles on the back one more time. “I’m proud of you.”

And then he was gone, making his way to his own table.

Mayor Argent went to the stage, giving a few words about love and finding one’s soul mate and some other bullshit before beginning the dinner. The food was still ridiculously healthy, but it was less bland than his breakfast and lunch. He spent most of the time looking around the ballroom and getting a sense of who was sitting where. Halfway through the meal he caught eyes with Scott who was sitting with Allison and Melissa.

Scott gave him a smile and a wave and Stiles returned it, wanting nothing more than to join them and then dance with whoever he wanted and then leave to sleep in his own bed at his home.

After the dinner the tables were cleared away and music started to play. He was about to make his way to Scott and Allison when Ms. Morrell took his hand, guiding him toward a waiting Alpha. Dread started to fill him and he yanked his hand out of her hold.

“Restroom,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

Before she could even protest, Stiles was out of there, walking toward the back and exiting the ballroom. There was a balcony just off the hall and he made his way outside, leaning against the railing and inhaling deeply.

This was a balcony. He wasn’t a werewolf, he wouldn’t heal. If he just jumped this would all be over.

Except he didn’t want to kill himself. Maybe he could figure out how to create some kind of ladder or to scale the side of the building. That didn’t seem too difficult. This could be easy, he could escape and live on his own in a big city where no one would know him.

He wouldn’t be able to tell his friends though since they’d probably crack under interrogation. Well, Allison wouldn’t. He could tell her and she could inform Scott and his dad that he was safe whenever he managed to get ahold of her.

This would totally work. He’d just have to figure out how to escape from this hellhole and—

“You hiding out too?”

Stiles turned around, not even knowing who he was expecting to see.

And he definitely hadn’t been expecting what he saw, because _holy shit_.

During his lessons he had been taught how to identify an Alpha. He had also been told to never be with an unmated Alpha alone. He had been told a lot of things, but no one had ever told him how his body would react once he was with one.

Because his dad was his family and mated Alphas were like protectors, but this was just insane. His heart sped up and he felt everything get warmer and he couldn’t look the man in the eyes, couldn’t help but tilt his head to the side to expose his neck.

The Alpha just looked at him, green eyes turned red for a second (great, an Alpha _werewolf_ ), before smirking and walking toward him. Stiles looked down to the Alpha’s right hand, noticing the red ribbon wrapped tightly around it. It was just around his palm, knotted in the back (and oh God, knotted), unlike Stiles who had his ribbon intricately wrapped around his middle finger and then around his wrist.

And then he realized that the Alpha had asked him a question.

“Uh, yeah,” he said, nodding his head. “Kind of. Bathroom.”

“What was that?” the Alpha asked, stepping toward the railing of the balcony and leaning against it.

“I don’t want to be there and I said I was going to the bathroom,” Stiles said. “We probably shouldn’t be alone together.”

“Probably not.”

He didn’t move.

“I was here first.”

“This is the fifth time I’ve been to one of these things and I always hide out on this balcony,” the Alpha said. “Now who was here first?”

Okay he had a point.

Fifth time though, Alphas had their first ceremony at 18 which would make him 22 and he usually hid out and he was a werewolf and Stiles didn’t recognize him from the opening ceremony.

“Are you Alpha Hale?” he asked. “Derek Hale?”

He turned his head to look at Stiles, raising his eyebrows. “What of it?”

“Oh, nothing,” Stiles said.

“You’re Stilinski, right?”

“Stiles.”

Derek nodded. “Shouldn’t you be dancing with Richardson?”

And, okay, that stung a bit. He knew that everyone thought that Omegas were supposed to be enamored by Alphas (especially ones like Richardson), but for some reason it hurt when Derek said it.

“I don’t want to.”

“Why not?” Derek asked. “Aren’t you promised to him?”

“Pretty sure I have a choice.”

“And I’m pretty sure we both know that’s not true,” Derek said. “How many people would lose money by you not choosing him? How many people would be disappointed in you?”

“I don’t need a lecture.”

“I’m not giving you one.”

“It feels like it.”

“I’m sorry then.”

Stiles finally made eye contact with him on that. And Derek was, well, everything he thought an Alpha would be. He was gorgeous with dark hair and a perfectly trimmed beard (that he kind of wanted to feel against his skin) and green eyes and angular features and a body that he just wanted to have pressed against him and—

He looked away, feeling his face heat up again. This was so stupid. He would probably act like this in front of every Alpha he met tonight.

“I just don’t agree with the system,” Derek said, and Stiles could feel him looking at him. He was a werewolf; he could probably smell what being so close to Stiles was doing to him. “I think we should all be able to choose on our own time.”

“Exactly,” Stiles said. “And it’s not even a choice. It’s Omegas being herded toward one Alpha who wants them and other Alphas being too scared to go after the same one.”

“You’re very outspoken for an Omega.”

“Thanks.”

He chanced another look at Derek, noticing that he was grinning now.

“Have you ever known of any Omegas getting hurt by their Alphas?” Stiles asked. “An Alpha like Richardson, do you think he would…?”

“Hurt you?” Derek supplied.

“Yeah,” Stiles nodded.

“No,” Derek said. “Alphas aren’t capable of hurting their Omegas. But an Alpha like him would probably keep you locked up, wouldn’t let others see you, wouldn’t let you see others, and when you turn 18 and are capable of having children, he’d probably knock you up as soon as he could.”

“We can take suppressants.”

“Those aren’t 100% affective.”

“Yeah, but I’d still have a good chance.”

“Who says he won’t give you fake ones and call it an accident?”

“You sound like you know him.”

“I do,” Derek said, his voice sounding ridiculously bitter. “And I know what Alphas like him do to Omegas.”

“But there’s a chance that I’ll be fine?” Stiles asked.

“Maybe.”

And now Derek was looking at him with pity which was definitely not what he wanted. He didn’t want someone feeling sorry for him but it felt like his destiny was already set in stone, like he couldn’t not pick Alpha Richardson.

“How would you treat an Omega?” Stiles asked.

“I don’t want a mate.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I don’t.”

“Buddy, I know werewolves and werewolves want mates.”

A little wrinkle of what had to be frustration appeared between Derek’s eyebrows and Stiles wanted nothing more than to smooth it out with his thumb. But it was bad enough that they were alone together, if they touched they could get into a huge mess of trouble.

“Even if I did want a mate, I wouldn’t want one like this,” Derek said. “It’d be on my own time. But I’m not allowed to go near unmated Omegas unless it’s during the festival.”

“Have you tried a Beta?” Stiles asked, because Alphas could mate with whoever they wanted and he had heard some stories of Alpha/Beta relationships being successful.

“A few,” Derek said. “And another Alpha.”

Now that was weird. Alpha/Alpha wasn’t exactly a recipe for success and judging by Derek’s face, it probably hadn’t ended well.

“Why am I telling you this?” Derek suddenly asked.

“Guess I just have one of those faces,” Stiles shrugged.

Derek looked at him them, really looked at him and it sent a weird thrill through Stiles to have Derek’s eyes flash red again. That probably happened to all Alphas though. Omegas couldn’t control their pheromones and werewolves could pick up on that stuff.

It had nothing to do with him.

“So, uh, what’s it like not living in Beacon Hills anymore?” Stiles asked.

“Nice,” Derek said.

“Nice how?”

He expected Derek to glare at him or tell him to stop being so pushy, but instead he just grinned, shaking his head.

“My family’s estate is secluded, it’s peaceful,” he said. “The surrounding town is filled with people I’ve known since my childhood. I only lived in Beacon Hills for a few years; I don’t consider this my hometown.”

“You have a big family?” Stiles asked.

“I used to,” Derek said.

And Stiles wasn’t going to step onto any toes by pushing that topic.

“You?” Derek asked.

“What?”

“Do you have a big family?”

“Uh, no,” Stiles said, shaking his head. “Just my dad and me. And, well, my best friend, Scott, and his mom and his mate, Allison. But, that’s it.”

“You’re not lonely though?” Derek asked.

“Nah, Omegas aren’t really allowed to be alone.”

“You know what I mean.”

“No, I’m not lonely,” Stiles said before pausing. “Not like you seem to be.”

He bit his tongue as soon as he said it, mentally cursing himself for saying something so insulting to an Alpha.

“You’re right,” Derek nodded.

And maybe Derek was the coolest Alpha to ever live.

He didn’t know how much longer they talked, but it felt like hours. They were sitting on the balcony before long, backs against the railing and talking about things that made them both laugh. Derek managed to sneak into the kitchen, bringing them both back a glass of wine. (And Stiles was extremely relieved when he actually came back.)

“You know Omegas aren’t supposed to drink, right?” Stiles asked, still thinking about getting drunk in the woods last night.

“It’s your last night of freedom, one glass won’t kill you,” Derek said.

Stiles could definitely drink to that.

“I can’t remember the last time I talked this much,” Derek sighed.

“Is that a good thing?” Stiles asked, sounding a bit too hopeful even to his own ears.

“Yeah,” Derek said, turning his head to look at him. “Yeah, it is.”

“I’m guessing your estate isn’t that crowded then.”

“It’s just me.”

“Is it a small estate?”

“It’s the biggest in the country.”

Stiles choked on his wine at that, coughing loudly before looking at Derek and blinking back tears. Because he had never thought that when Derek said that he lived on his family’s estate that he meant _his family’s estate._

“With the gardens and the 43 bathrooms and 35 bedrooms and the wine vineyard and the—”

“Yes,” Derek cut in.

And then he remembered the fire and how all of the family had been killed except for three and oh God, he was such an insensitive asshole.

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine, Stiles,” Derek said as if he could read Stiles’ mind. “It happened a long time ago.”

He didn’t think six years was that long ago. His mom had died four years ago and sometimes it felt like four weeks.

“What about your sister and your uncle?” Stiles asked. “If you don’t mind me asking. I mean, I can shut up or find another balcony or something.”

“My sister’s living with her husband and my uncle’s in Europe,” Derek shrugged. “They wanted to sell the estate, but I just couldn’t let it go.”

“I heard they were trying to set up tours.”

“Yeah, after they rebuilt the part that was damaged in the fire, the state tried to buy it from me,” Derek said. “They wanted to use my home as a national landmark and Laura and Peter wanted to, but I just couldn’t. I’m sorry; you probably don’t care about this.”

“No, it’s fine,” Stiles said quickly. “I just…You’re all alone in that big house. I can’t imagine being that alone.”

“I have two… workers,” Derek said, obviously trying to find the right word. “They don’t live in the house, but they’re over every day.”

And that was good; better than him being all by himself. Because for some reason Stiles wanted this man he had just met to never be alone. It was bizarre, being so drawn to Derek, but he just assumed that it was like this for all Alphas. Maybe when he finally met Alpha Richardson, he’d feel the same pull.

Shit. Everyone was probably looking for him.

“I should probably go dance,” Stiles said after a short silence. “Or at least let everyone know that I’m alive.”

“The closing ceremony is in 20 minutes,” Derek said, checking his watch. “You can just go out in 15.”

“I’d like to at least meet the man I’m going to spend the rest of my life with though.”

Derek seemed to sober up at that though, realization coming over his face. It was almost like Derek thought he had been getting to know his Alpha, _him_.

But that was stupid. No one like Derek would want him, especially since he was so against the festival.

Stiles was about to stand up when Derek placed a hand on his cheek, turning his head to look at him.

“Just one more thing,” Derek said. “Would it be completely selfish of me if I wanted to have your first kiss?”

His heart was pounding and Derek’s hand on him felt like an open flame and he felt heat pool into his cheeks and his stomach. Stiles wet his lips, watching as Derek followed the movement and almost having a heart attack.

“Yes,” he answered finally. “But I think it’s good to be a little selfish sometimes.”

The corner of Derek’s mouth twitched up into a smile and he leaned forward, just barely brushing their mouths together before—

“ _Omega Stilinski_!”

Stiles almost leaped away from Derek, moving away quickly and ended up lying on his back on the balcony. He looked toward the doors to see a furious Malcolm who was glaring at Derek.

“How _dare_ you,” Malcolm practically spat. “Seducing an Omega the night he’s supposed to be promised to another Alpha. You probably lured him onto this balcony, talking about how you could treat him so much better than Alpha Richardson. Just because you don’t want a mate doesn’t mean you can go pilfering from others.”

“We were just talking,” Derek said calmly.

“That didn’t look like talking,” Malcolm shot back.

“Can I meet Alpha Richardson now?” Stiles cut in. “I really want to meet him. I’ve just been really nervous and Der—Alpha Hale was just telling me about him.”

Malcolm didn’t buy it for a second, but he gave a curt nod, grabbing Stiles’ arm before dragging him away from the balcony.

“Do not listen to a word that man says, Genim,” Malcolm said. “He is a liar and a monster. He’s unstable and unreliable. Whatever he offered you if you choose him—”

“I’m not going to choose him,” Stiles said. He just wanted Malcolm to shut up and stop saying such bad things about Derek.

“You better not,” Malcolm threatened. “I’ll tell people you were nervous for the entire ball. You only need to officially meet Alpha Richardson anyway since he’s the one for you.”

Stiles gave a small nod before entering the ballroom with Malcolm. The closing ceremony was soon and then he’d have to finally choose. Even though now he was completely torn between Richardson and Derek and just pointing to a random Alpha who looked nice.

Malcolm was leading him through the room and eventually they reached a table where a man with light brown hair and brown eyes and an aggressive smile was sitting. He definitely recognized him as an Alpha but if anything his body was telling him to run away. This wasn’t at all like how it had been with Derek; he felt creeped out, and as the man stared directly at him he felt even worse.

“I finally get to meet you,” Richardson said, getting to his feet. “It’s an honor, Genim.”

He took Stiles’ hand, smiling widely at him and Stiles just grinned back, nodding awkwardly.

“Uh, you too.”

“You aren’t nervous, are you?” Richardson asked. “Don’t worry, I can remedy that. Would you like to dance?”

Usually he didn’t mind dancing since he was decent at it and it had never felt like a chore, but dancing with Alpha Richardson seemed like the most unappealing thing in the world.

“Yes, I’d like that,” Stiles said before allowing himself to be escorted to the dance floor.

Malcolm was smiling assuredly at him and he wanted nothing more than to punch him in his stupid smug face. Ms. Morrell was nowhere to be found and neither was his dad or Ms. McCall. Scott and Allison were sitting at a table in the corner of the room, Allison sitting on Scott’s lap as they talked with Lydia and Jackson. He felt bad for ditching them all night, but he knew that even if he hadn’t spent so much time with Derek, he would have ended up just dancing with different Alphas all night.

“So, Genim, tell me about yourself.”

And now they were dancing. When the hell had that happened?

“I go by Stiles,” he said, figuring that that was the first thing that he should know.

“I prefer Genim,” Richardson said. “It’s more traditional. And a name so beautiful is fitting for someone as beautiful as you.”

That line was corny as fuck, but he just gave a nervous smile, playing it off like he was pleasantly embarrassed by the compliment.

“What about school?” he continued. “What do you enjoy studying?”

“Math and science, mostly,” Stiles said. “I’m really interested in programming; I think I’d want to do something like that in the future.”

“Something like what?”

“Like study it in college,” Stiles shrugged.

Alpha Richardson let out a boisterous laugh at that, even going as far to throw his head back. “Oh, my love, that’s charming. You won’t have to get a degree in anything though with me, I can provide for you.”

“I know that,” Stiles said. “It would be fun to learn though and do something for myself.”

“That’s such a terrible thought though,” he said. “I don’t want you going to college; I never want you out of my sight. Genim, you’ll never have to leave the town surrounding my castle for as long as you live. Unless you want to go on vacations, then I can show you the world, among other things.”

His hand traveled a little south at that, a slow smile creeping onto his mouth. Stiles felt sick and he was about to excuse himself when he saw Derek from the corner of his eye. The Alphas were lining up and Derek was standing on the stage, eyes set on him.

The song ended and Stiles sagged in relief, moving away from Alpha Richardson and applauding the musicians with everyone else.

“Thank you for the dance,” Stiles said.

“No, thank you.”

Without allowing another word to be said, Stiles made his way to the stage. He took his seat next to Holly and quickly scanned the crowd below. Scott and Allison were toward the front, Allison spotting him first and jabbing Scott in the side to get his attention. It was nice to know that his friends were near, but that was only a miniscule comfort. His dad and Ms. McCall were on the other side of the room, talking to each other before bringing their attention to the podium where Mayor Argent was standing.

“Well, I have to say that this has been a very eventful night,” Argent said. “And now it’s time for the Omegas to choose. Omega Lana Abigail Guinea, if you would go first.”

Lana nodded, standing up and walking forward to the middle of the stage. She looked at the group of Alphas before clearing her throat. “I choose Alpha Marigold.”

The youngest Alpha, an 18 year-old human, stood up, smiling brightly at Lana as he walked toward her. He took her chin in his right hand before saying that he accepted and kissing her. There was a loud round of applause from the audience before they untied the ribbons from each other’s right hands and tying them to their lefts.

Lily went next, choosing a female werewolf who had just turned 20. After that was Nick who picked an older female human in her 30s. Holly went after him, choosing an Alpha human in his 40s and Stiles really didn’t want to think about that.

And then he was the only Omega left and he had no idea what he was going to do.

“Omega Genim Rupert Stilinski, if you would finish this up for us,” Mayor Argent proposed.

Stiles nodded, standing up and making his way to the middle of the stage. His throat was dry and his stomach was in knots. This was the biggest decision of his life and he thought that even if he had a million years to choose an Alpha he wouldn’t be able to do it under these circumstances.

He looked at Alpha Richardson, seeing the smug smile and the dark eyes and the hungry gaze. All of the other Alphas looked nice enough, none of them glaring at him or looking like they were about to pounce, mostly they were just indifferent. Derek was at the end and he caught eyes with him instantly. His face softened and he looked pensive for a moment before giving the slightest of nods.

And that was it. That was all he needed to figure out what he was going to do.

Stiles looked at Alpha Richardson again, giving a small smile and then clearing his throat.

“I choose Alpha Hale.”

Silence. Complete and utter silence.

He didn’t even look at anyone else, just focusing on Derek who calmly stepped forward. Once he was in front of him Stiles realized that Derek was only an inch or two taller than him and for some reason that made him relax, made everything seem a little bit better.

Derek took his chin in his hand, tilting his head up just a fraction. “I accept.”

Relief poured through him, but he wasn’t even able to appreciate it because Derek was kissing him. It was brief and over way too soon and when Derek pulled away he expected the applause that everyone else had gotten, but instead there was just more silence.

A broken clap sounded from the crowd and Stiles looked from the corner of his eye to see Scott there, clapping slowly before having his hands covered by Allison. Stiles smiled slightly before turning back to Derek who was offering him his right hand. He brought his hands up, trying to untie the ribbon from Derek’s hand, his palms sweaty and his nerves absolutely wrecked.

“Calm down,” Derek said softly. “It’s all right, don’t worry.”

He nodded, swallowing and then getting back to the ribbon. Eventually he managed to untie it, feeling a stab of guilt once he realized that Derek had tied it so impossibly because he never intended for anyone to untie it for him. Stiles tied the wrinkled ribbon loosely around Derek’s left hand, making sure it was easier to get off.

Derek grabbed his right hand then, slowly and easily untying the ribbon from his hand. He squeezed Stiles’ palm when he was done before wrapping the ribbon around his left hand in the exact same way it’d been around his right. Afterward, Derek brought Stiles’ hand to his mouth, kissing his knuckles and making Stiles calm down a bit. Their mating had already started and he could already feel it setting in (or his mind was just playing tricks on him due to nerves).

They were about to leave the stage, about to just go away from all of this, when a loud laugh broke through the room.

“Oh, that was a good show,” Alpha Richardson said. “A very, very good show. Now step away, Hale, the boy is mine.”

Stiles was extremely tempted to point out that he didn’t belong—

“He doesn’t belong to anyone,” Derek said, turning around to face Richardson.

—Or Derek would just do it for him.

“You’re right,” Richardson nodded. “Right now he doesn’t, but after I claim him—”

And then there was a low growl and Derek’s chest practically rippled as his eyes turned red. “You are not going to lay a hand on him.”

“You stole him from me.”

“The Omega is the one with the choice.”

“You messed with his head.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You could have said no.”

“And have him stuck with you?”

Stiles wasn’t expecting that to hurt. He wasn’t expecting to feel so bad about Derek accepting him because he just didn’t want him to be stuck with Richardson. It was a valiant move, but one that left him feeling sad and dejected.

Derek gave him a look then and Stiles briefly wondered if he could smell the sadness on him. He would have tried to cover it up, but if Scott could sense fake happiness there was no doubt in his mind that Derek could as well.

“You’re making a mistake, Hale,” Richardson said.

“No, I’m not,” Derek said, shaking his head. “Better luck next year.”

A hand was taking his then, leading him off of the stage and behind the curtain where the other Omegas and their Alphas and mentors were. Everyone looked happy and content and so full of life. Stiles expected to see Ms. Morrell glaring or about to pounce on him with a knife, but she looked calm.

“Hello Stiles,” she greeted. “Derek.”

“Marin.”

And there was definitely some familiarity there.

“You two know each other?” Stiles asked.

“We went to school together,” she shrugged. “I was a few years ahead though.”

“She’s best friends with my sister,” Derek supplied.

Well that made sense.

He felt like asking more, maybe asking Ms. Morrell everything she knew about Derek (even though he was standing right there), but then he heard loud footsteps coming toward them and he turned around just in time to see Malcolm charging toward them.

“Do you realize what you’ve done?” he shrieked. “What _both_ of you have done?”

“Stiles made his choice,” Ms. Morrell said.

“The wrong choice.”

“There is no wrong choice.”

“There is in this case.”

Malcolm was a short guy and the fact that his face was red was almost comical. It was also kind of scary too.

“I was going to make so much money if you had just picked Alpha Richardson,” he continued. “You ruined my career.”

“Now, Malcolm, let’s not get melodramatic.”

Stiles felt his face break out into a smile as he saw his dad walk over to them along with Ms. McCall, Scott, and Allison.

The Sheriff placed a hand on Malcolm’s shoulder, giving him a tight smile before pushing him aside and enveloping Stiles in a hug. He hugged his dad back, feeling all kinds of relief come over him as he did.

“So, this is it,” John said, looking from Stiles to Derek. “It’s nice to meet you, Derek.”

“You too, sir,” Derek said.

His dad kept an arm around his shoulders, outstretching a hand to Derek for him to shake. It was actually kind of nice. The Sheriff wasn’t shooting Derek daggers with his eyes and he didn’t look like he was about to pull his gun out either. It felt civil, if a little stiff.

“Congratulations, dude,” Scott said, patting him on the back.

“Thanks, man,” Stiles said, giving him a one-armed hug.

“Do you think you made the right choice?” Scott whispered into his ear and Stiles knew that Derek could probably hear.

“Yeah,” he said, even though he was still a little bit unsure. “I’m pretty sure I did.”

Next up was Allison who kissed his cheek and wished him luck and then Ms. McCall who did the same. There was another round of hugging and eventually he ended up in his dad’s arms again and his dad was crying and he might have been about to cry too.

“I’ll see you soon,” John said. “I’ll visit and you can visit and we’ll talk on the phone every day.”

“Maybe not _every_ day.”

“ _Every_ day.”

“Okay, every day.”

Finally he shook Ms. Morrell’s hand and she gave him an enigmatic smile (and he really didn’t know why he would expect anything else) before wishing him good luck. Malcolm was fuming a ways away looking like he was about to strangle someone, but Stiles chose to ignore him.

“I guess we should go,” Derek said, taking his hand and Stiles tried not to read into how much that made him feel at home.

“Yeah, uh, lead the way, I guess.”

Stiles waved over his shoulder at his family as he left with Derek through the backdoor of the stage.

“Sorry,” Stiles said as they walked to the parking lot. “My family’s kind of intense.”

“No, they’re fine,” Derek said. “They love you, that’s good.”

He nodded and then everything just felt heavy. On the balcony conversation had come so easily and now Stiles had no idea what to say. He knew that they were going to go back to Derek’s hotel to continue the mating (which didn’t involve sex, thank God, he definitely wouldn’t be able to handle that). In the morning they would drive to Derek’s estate and sometime after midnight on Monday his first heat would start and he really didn’t want to think about that.

“Derek,” Stiles said. “I’m sorry about choos—”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

And that just made him feel even worse. Because Derek didn’t want this and _he_ didn’t want this and now they were stuck with each other for the rest of their lives. No mated couple had ever separated and it was even more set in stone if one was mated to a werewolf.

This was the man he was going to spend the rest of his life with and he felt like Derek just didn’t want to be around him.

They stopped in front of a black Camaro and Derek opened the passenger side door for him. He nodded in thanks before getting in the car, Derek closing the door behind him. Stiles fastened his seatbelt and pressed himself against the leather seat, wishing that he could just sink into it and never come out. Derek got into the driver’s side, his door almost slamming shut as he tugged at the tie around his neck.

He didn’t know if he could or should talk. And even if he did, he didn’t know what he would say.

Should he apologize again? Should he try to lighten the mood? Should he run out of the car and never look back?

The last one was the most appealing but for some reason he couldn’t see anyone being too happy about that.

At the time choosing Derek felt like the right thing, but now he was second-guessing it more than anything.

“I really am sor—”

“ _Stiles_ ,” Derek said, exasperated. “I could have said no to you, I didn’t. Stop worrying.”

“I’m not worrying.”

Derek gave him a pointed look.

“Okay, I’m worrying.”

“Well, we have time to figure this entire thing out,” Derek said. “We can talk tomorrow, is that okay?”

“Yeah, tomorrow works,” Stiles nodded.

Tomorrow they’d be at Derek’s estate and this was all moving really fast. He knew that it would, but he just wasn’t expecting it to feel this way.

They drove to the nicest hotel Beacon Hills had, which wasn’t saying much since it was such a small town and the hotel wasn’t exactly what most considered fancy. The ride was in silence with Derek focusing on the road and Stiles sneaking glances at him throughout the drive. He couldn’t real pick up on a change in his face, but he seemed to be relatively calm and indifferent.

That was good. It was better than angry.

Derek’s room was on the top floor and he opened the door for Stiles, turning the light on and closing the door behind him. It was just a simple room with a bathroom, dresser, and queen-sized bed and Stiles realized that Derek had been intending on just spending the night alone. Stiles stared at the bed before looking to the clock on the nightstand, realizing that it was after midnight.

“I’m assuming you know what we have to do,” Derek said, shrugging off his suit jacket and then taking off his tie.

“Uh, yeah,” Stiles said, taking his own tie off and slowly unbuttoning his jacket. “Will it, uh, take long or—?”

“No,” Derek said, shaking his head.

“Okay.”

Stiles continued to slowly undress himself, eyeing Derek from time to time and becoming increasingly appreciative as more skin was exposed. Derek had the most amazing body he’d ever seen and he started to get embarrassed, realizing that he was just this pale, skinny thing in comparison.

Eventually Derek had stripped down to just his underwear, sitting down on the bed and moving so that his back was against the headrest. Stiles then regretted taking his clothes off so slowly because he had skipped his shirt and pants and was only just now taking off his socks.

And now he had an audience.

“Uh, just give me a second,” Stiles said, tossing his socks to the side and looking down at his shirt before taking his belt off instead.

He gave an awkward grin to Derek, yanking on his belt and getting it out of all of the belt loops except for one. Stiles tugged on it again before groaning and grabbing the loop and trying to wiggle the belt out. There was a loose strand that had somehow wrapped itself around the belt and this was just not his day.

“Stiles.”

“Almost got it.”

“Stiles.”

“And—there we go! Got it, just one second and I’ll—”

“ _Stiles_.”

He looked up at that, goose bumps prickling up on his arm and his stomach doing this weird, twisting thing.

“Yeah?”

“Come here.”

It wasn’t like he expected an Alpha to say it. It wasn’t direct or harsh or orderly, but exasperated and a little bit fond. Derek looked amused as well, like Stiles was something, some _one_ that he enjoyed and that just made him even more flustered.

“No, I’m good,” Stiles said. “Very good, I can totally take my clothes off.”

“I’m not saying that you can’t,” Derek said. “I would just like to help.”

Stiles’ mouth went dry at that and he gaped at Derek who was, yeah, he was definitely grinning.

“Well, if you insist,” Stiles said, walking toward the bed.

Derek moved to sit on the edge and he reached forward, unfastening Stiles’ pants before pushing them down slightly. Stiles did the rest before Derek had the chance, shoving them all the way down before stepping out of them and kicking them to the side. He couldn’t even begin to unbutton his shirt though because Derek was wrapping an arm around his waist and Stiles had no choice but to hold on to his (ridiculously amazing) shoulders.

Somehow Derek ended up with his back against the headrest again and Stiles in his lap, their noses bumping against each other as Derek started to unbutton his shirt. Stiles really didn’t know what to do, hands on Derek’s shoulders and eyes looking down at Derek’s fingers. He could sense Derek looking at him, probably studying his face or whatever Alphas did.

The shirt was unbuttoned and Derek only pushed it off his shoulders a little before he pressed his mouth against Stiles’. It was firm at first, probably not even classified as a kiss since there wasn’t anything sensual about it. But then Derek opened his mouth, taking Stiles’ top lip between his and moving his hands to his hips and okay, this was happening.

It wasn’t like Stiles didn’t know the mechanics of kissing. Sure he had never done it before, but it couldn’t be that difficult. He had had enough love interests in RPGs and had seen enough Nicholas Sparks movies to get the gist of it.

Except not really because seeing it and doing it were two different things.

Because none of those things prepared him for Derek Hale and the stubble scratching against his chin and the strong, warm hands gripping him and the hard body under his hands and the mouth that obviously knew what it was doing. Stiles pulled back a bit, frowning and looking at Derek’s mouth, wanting to kiss it but being too chicken shit to actually do anything about it, afraid that he’d screw up.

“Stiles,” Derek said. “Stop thinking about it.”

And maybe that was what he had been waiting to hear because when Derek kissed him again he felt ready for it. He opened his mouth some, working his lips against Derek’s and okay, he could do this, this was actually pretty easy. Their bodies moved closer, Derek moving his hands up to Stiles’ back and Stiles keeping his firmly planted on Derek’s shoulders.

At some point, Derek slipped his tongue into Stiles’ mouth, making Stiles let out a little moan as he slid his tongue right back against Derek’s. Everything felt hot and wet and kind of filthy after that, but still ridiculously and amazingly _good_. He could just forget about everything else then, forget about the stupid ceremony and his heat that was going to be in a few days and moving to live with Derek for the rest of his life.

Derek moved his mouth away from his though, pressing kisses against his cheek and jaw and then down his neck, finally settling on where his neck met his shoulder. He felt Derek exhale against his skin and he shifted on the older man’s lap, feeling heat pour into him.

There were different steps to the mating and this was the one that had always worried Stiles. The ceremony was easy and moving in was scary but doable and the heat and sex that came with it made him terrified. But this was just insane.

Alpha humans just nipped the area Derek was currently nuzzling, just enough to leave a faint mark. Alpha werewolves grew their fangs out though, sinking into the skin. He had always promised himself to pick an Alpha human for this reason, but he couldn’t find it in himself to regret choosing Derek.

“It won’t turn you,” Derek said.

“I know.”

“It’ll just…” he trailed off, probably trying to find the best words to explain what he was trying to say.

“Make me yours?” Stiles prompted.

Derek made a face at that, but nodded anyway. “I’m sorry about this.”

“It’s fine,” Stiles said, trying to shrug it off even though Derek could no doubt hear his heart pounding. “You just have to do what you gotta do.”

He met Derek’s eyes at that, bringing a hand up to cup Derek’s cheek, thumb brushing against the stubble there. “Just get it over with, please.”

Derek nodded, pressing their mouths together again for just a brief kiss before bringing his mouth to Stiles’ neck again. He licked a stripe against the skin and there was a few seconds’ pause before Stiles felt sharp pricks against his skin and then an even more intense pain. His fingernails where digging into the skin of Derek’s shoulders and something that sounded embarrassingly like a whimper escaped from his mouth.

It was this hot, consuming pain and he couldn’t even think straight before his eyes squeezed shut and everything was eclipsed in black.

**OoOoOoO**

Stiles woke up alone. Disappointment flooded through him and he tried not to think too much into it. He had heard stories of mates waking up in each other’s arms and sharing lazy kisses and maybe even fooling around a bit, never going all the way though.

But he was alone in the bed, wearing only his underwear and the white ribbon still tied around his hand. He brought a hand up to his neck, feeling a bandage over where Derek had bit him along with a dull ache.

“Good morning.”

He looked toward the bathroom door were Derek was standing, a pair of jeans on and a gray Henley that was doing all sorts of incredible things in the way of defining Derek’s chest and arms. The Alpha was brushing his teeth and had his eyes trained on Stiles, or more specifically, the bandage on his neck.

Derek disappeared in the bathroom for all of ten seconds, Stiles hearing him spit in the sink and rustling around a bit and turning on the sink. He came back with a bottle of ibuprofen and a glass of water, sitting on the edge of the bed and handing it to Stiles.

“Good morning to you too,” Stiles finally said in return, frowning at the pill bottle. “Uh, why does a werewolf have pain meds?”

“It was in the medicine cabinet,” Derek shrugged.

“I’m not allowed to take pills.”

“Maybe not before, but you’re mated now and if you want to, you can.”

Stiles took the bottle, reading the instructions on the side and glaring at the “Keep out of reach of children and Omegas” label. He had taken an allergy pill once before while he had been at Scott’s house and he couldn’t stop sneezing because of the pollen. Ms. Morrell hadn’t gotten mad at him, but she had told Melissa to hide all of the medicine in the house. He had then been introduced to certain herbs and how to make them into tea and soon he had little pots of herbs growing on the windowsill above the sink in his kitchen. They were just as effective, just not as instantaneous.

“Well, it couldn’t hurt, I guess,” Stiles shrugged, opening the bottle and dumping two pills onto his palm. He took them one at a time, placing a pill on his tongue before gulping it down with a huge mouth of water.

“You should shower and get ready to leave,” Derek said, running a hand through Stiles’ hair before cupping the back of his neck. “Someone named Mora dropped off a bag for you not too long ago.”

“Thanks,” Stiles said, getting out of bed and taking the bag that Derek pointed to.

He quickly made his way into the bathroom then, hurriedly turning on the shower before standing in front of the mirror. Peeling away the bandage, he noticed that there wasn’t any blood there, just punctures that had already scabbed over and a nasty bruise. This was probably why Alpha werewolves and Omega humans were an unlikely pairing, humans weren’t made to withstand this. He pressed the bandage back in place before taking off his underwear and untying the ribbon from his hand.

After a quick shower (which actually took longer than he would have liked due to the amount of times he had to wash his hair to get all of the gel out), he wrapped a towel around his waist before looking through the bag Mora left. There was another pair of underwear and socks along with a button down, a pair of dark pants, a belt, and a pair of shoes that looked like they were going to kill his feet.

Jeans and sneakers and t-shirts couldn’t come back to him soon enough.

He changed and brushed his teeth with the complementary toothbrush and toothpaste. After running a comb through his hair he just looked in the mirror, pressing his hands against the edge of the counter and then taking a deep breath. He could do this. He could start a completely new life with a virtual stranger who was now his mate. Doing that didn’t seem like a big deal, but his heat would start in less than 24 hours and that scared the shit out of him. At the time he probably wouldn’t care that he’ll be naked and having a ridiculous amount of sex with someone he barely knew, but afterward he’d be so embarrassed.

Sex might never be on the table again.

Well, no, it probably would be, just not anytime soon.

Stiles finally left the bathroom, doing his best to put a smile on his face when he noticed Derek leaning against the wall opposite him. He looked like he was mulling over something, maybe even coming to terms, and Stiles didn’t want to think about how Derek was probably regretting saying yes to him.

“Ready to go?” Derek asked, eyes looking him over.

“Yeah,” Stiles nodded. “So, is everything going to be at your place when we get there?”

“Should be,” Derek said.

“Good, I can’t wait to wear a t-shirt again.”

Derek chuckled at that, grabbing a duffel bag before motioning Stiles out first. They were walking out of the hotel room and to the elevator when Derek took his hand in his, giving it a light squeeze.

“And Stiles?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s _our_ place.”

He had a weird reaction to that, he wasn’t nervous or happy, just relieved. Because if Derek saw things as being theirs instead of just his, then he probably saw the relationship as more of a partnership rather than him being in charge. Which was good, that was want Stiles wanted.

Derek checked out of the hotel and they headed to the Camaro in the parking lot. The town was strangely quiet like it always was after the festival. Granted they had woken up earlier than most, but it seemed almost like a ghost town. This was how he was going to say goodbye to Beacon Hills and even though he would come back someday, it still felt strange to be leaving it all behind.

“You okay?” Derek asked.

“No,” Stiles said because there was no point in lying to a werewolf. “Are you?”

“Not really.”

Just like Mayor Argent had said at the opening ceremony, Derek’s estate was only an hour away. Stiles still fell asleep during the drive though, not really wanting to sit in a silent car with Derek for an hour. He was tempted to turn on the radio, but he didn’t know if Derek would want that or not. He felt kind of stupid for being so intimidated by Derek when the man hadn’t done anything to make him think that he would get mad at him, but it just felt like an instinct.

So, he fell asleep and it had felt like five minutes before someone was gently shaking his shoulder. Stiles groaned, moving away from the hand and trying to cuddle back into his seat. There was a light chuckle and as Stiles started to wake up a bit he realized that it was Derek. He slowly opened his eyes, turning his head to look at Derek who was side-eyeing him.

“Hey,” Stiles said.

“Hey,” Derek said in return before nodding forward. “We’re here.”

Stiles looked forward, still sleepy but definitely able to identify—

“Holy fuck.”

He clamped a hand over his mouth, looking at Derek who was looking at him with surprise. Apparently he didn’t know a lot of Omegas who cussed.

But it was definitely necessary because _holy fuck_. It made the pictures he had seen of Richardson’s “castle” look like a castle in a playground. He didn’t even know how to describe it and if he knew some architecture terms, he would have thrown those out, but he was lost. Stiles had only heard of the estate and the house itself but he had never imagined that it would be this grand.

The Hale Estate was ridiculous and the house with the fountain out front and the long driveway and the four stories (he was putting money on there being a basement as well). He totally understood why the state had wanted to buy it and make it into a tourist spot because it looked like it belonged in a museum. There were pointed roofs and high windows and just _a lot_. Like, that was a lot of house.

“I don’t know how to describe it in my head,” Stiles finally said once Derek parked the car in front of the (huge, intimidating) front door.

“I’ve lived here my entire life and neither do I,” Derek said, getting out of the car and making his way around to open the door for Stiles.

“Do you ever get lost?”

“I used to, but now I can’t even if I want to.”

Stiles chose to ignore how sad Derek looked when he said that. Despite Derek being good-looking and charming when he wanted to be and rich, he sure had a lot of damage buried away.

They both just stood there, looking up at the house (well Stiles gaped at the house and Derek looked amusedly at him), when the front door opened and a boy who looked like he was Stiles’ age came out. He was tall and skinny with curly light hair and a big smile.

“You’re back,” he said, beaming at Derek before turning to face Stiles. He sniffed once (definitely a werewolf) before his smile turned smug. “Someone didn’t tell us he was accepting a mate.”

“I didn’t have any plans to,” Derek said. “Isaac, this is Stiles. Stiles, this is Isaac, my uh—”

“Co-caretaker,” Isaac prompted. “Butler. Personal punching bag.”

“I don’t punch you.”

“You yell in my general area when you’re angry.”

“That happened once.”

“Yeah, okay,” Isaac nodded, completely unconvinced. “I basically clean up around the house and cook. My partner, Boyd, takes care of the outdoor work.”

Stiles was tempted to ask if he meant partner as in mates or just for a working partnership, but decided not to ask. It wasn’t really his place and if he really got curious he was sure Derek would tell him.

“It’s nice to meet you, Isaac,” Stiles said, outstretching his hand to him.

“You too,” Isaac said, shaking it. “Wow, Derek, I never thought you’d settle down.”

The unspoken “me neither” hurt a lot more than it probably should have.

They headed inside then, Stiles looking around and trying to memorize every single detail at once. He wasn’t really given the chance though because before he knew it he was being ushered to the left of the entrance hall and up a staircase.

“I’ll let you unpack first,” Isaac said. “All of your stuff is already in your room, Stiles. I can unpack it for you, but if you want to, that’s fine.”

“I’ll do it,” Stiles said.

They headed to the second floor where they walked through another hall before turning into a sitting room. Stiles once again tried to take in everything around him, but he couldn’t see since Isaac was practically shoving him toward a door to the right of the sitting room.

“Your room is on the right and Derek’s is on the left of the sitting room,” Isaac explained and Stiles was just now noticing that Derek had disappeared.

“Uh, we’re not sharing a room?” Stiles asked.

“Derek wants you to have your own room,” Isaac said. “But they’re close by incase you get an urge in the middle of the night.”

There was eyebrow waggling at that. Stiles didn’t really appreciate it.

This definitely hadn’t been what he had expected. He knew that Derek wasn’t excited about their mating (and he really wasn’t either), but he had thought that they were going to at least try. And he didn’t see how they were trying if Derek didn’t want them sharing a bedroom and didn’t want to help him get situated since he ditched him within the first five minutes of their arrival.

Isaac, probably smelling his sadness or sensing it or something, wrapped an arm around his shoulders as he opened the door to the bedroom.

“Derek’s a really guarded person,” Isaac explained. “There must have been something about you that made him accept you. Don’t worry too much.”

Stiles gave a little nod before walking into the room. It was bright and open and circular with the bed being about three times the size of his one at home. Except this was his home, so he guessed this was his bed now. It was still weird to think about this as his home since no one he loved was here and he didn’t even know what any of the other rooms looked like.

The cardboard boxes that the workers had filled with his things were at the opposite end of the room, looking out of place and kind of junky in the pristine room.

“Through those doors to the right are your closet and bathroom,” Isaac said. “I’ll be in the sitting room outside if you need anything.”

“Thanks,” Stiles said, continuing to just stand in the middle of the room and barely hearing the door close behind him.

He walked up to the bed, sitting down on the ridiculously comfortable mattress (at least he wouldn’t have any back problems because of a lumpy mattress) and looking around the room. It was golden and happy and welcoming, trying to beckon him into the wonderful and glorious life of living at the Hale Estate. He couldn’t shake the feeling of it belonging to someone else before though. Derek stayed in the room across the hall and he was in this room. Had this been his sister’s room? It did have a girly sense to it and it made sense to put siblings’ rooms close together.

Stiles didn’t want to think about it though. He didn’t even know where Derek was and Stiles was torn between wanting to look for him and just wanting to start unpacking.

All of his life he’d never had an abundance of people to watch his back for him, but he had never felt alone. Now he felt completely and utterly alone.

Except that his phone was somewhere in one of those boxes. He could call Allison or Scott or his dad or even Jackson if he wanted to. Stiles got off of the bed, making his way toward the boxes and frowning when he saw that they weren’t labeled. If the workers had categorized the boxes then he wouldn’t have any problems finding the one that had his phone. But of course they hadn’t labeled them.

He opened the first, seeing nothing but his clothes being more neatly folded than they ever had before. Three more had clothes and after that it was books. Then there were DVDs and video games. Miscellaneous things were in another and he glared at the last one before bringing it forward. Inside were all of his gaming consoles, laptop, phone, camera, and chargers. He let out a sigh of relief, grabbing his phone and unlocking it before scrolling through his contacts.

“You’re alive!”

Leave it to Scott to make everything 10 times more dramatic than it needed to be.

“Very  much so,” Stiles said, sitting on a chair that was in front of a desk.

“Are you at the estate yet?”

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“It’s really big.”

“Well that’s descriptive.”

“Shut up, Scott,” Stiles said. “It’s a lot to take in.”

“I can imagine,” Scott said. “So where’s the mate? Have you been cuddling all day? Did he have to take a leak so you’re sneaking in a conversation with me?”

“He ditched me.”

“Come again?”

“Within five minutes of arriving here he disappeared,” Stiles said. “I’m in my room, not _our_ room because apparently he doesn’t trust me to sleep in the same bed with him or something.”

“Dude, I know we promised to never talk about this, but your first heat’s tomorrow,” Scott said.

“I know.”

“Do you think he’s going to leave you all alone for that?”

“No,” Stiles said quickly. Except he didn’t know that. What if Derek did leave him alone for his heat? Would he even live through that? “He wouldn’t do that.”

“You don’t sound very sure.”

“That’s because I’m not.”

“Do you want me to come over there and kick his ass?”

“You probably wouldn’t be very successful.”

“Yeah, but I could try.”

“I don’t think Allison would forgive me if you die fighting in my honor.”

“Okay, true.”

There were a few beats of silence and Stiles took the opportunity to slump against his chair and just _breathe_. He felt like he hadn’t breathed in weeks and now he could because it was over. He had chosen an Alpha and he had survived the ball and he was moved into his new home.

Of course only that part was over and he knew that he had an entire life of stress ahead of him.

But right now he could breathe and just talk to his best friend and try his hardest not to think about his heat that was going to start in less than 24 hours.

“How’s my dad?” Stiles asked.

“He’s fine,” Scott said. “I think my mom spent the night at your house last night.”

“What?”

“Yeah.”

“What do you mean ‘you think’?”

“Well, I was at Allison’s house pretty late and on my drive home my mom’s car was outside your house,” Scott said. “And when I woke up this morning her bed was made and she was in the kitchen making pancakes.”

“Oh God.”

“Yeah.”

“Oh _God_.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Holy fucking _God_.”

“ _Stiles_.”

“I’m mated, I can say whatever the fuck I want to say,” Stiles said. “Do you think they’re serious?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure,” Scott said. “I think it’s hitting my mom that as soon as I turn 18, Allison and I are getting officially mated and we’ll be gone. And now you’re gone and I don’t know, I think they’ve gone on a few dates before.”

They definitely had. Stiles couldn’t pinpoint when his dad had gone from greeting Melissa with a friendly hug and a smile to something warm and fond. It hadn’t been long but it had happened. The thought itself was weird. Melissa was a Beta and his dad was an Alpha and they had both been mated before. Hell, his dad still wore his red ribbon on his left hand during the festival.

Stiles’ mom was always going to be the most important to his dad, but when his father had slipped the necklace with his mom’s wedding ring around it onto his neck, maybe he had started to let go a bit.

“The law won’t let them get mated,” Stiles said. “They don’t recognize second matings.”

“Yeah, but they won’t say anything if they move in together,” Scott said. “We could be unofficial brothers soon.”

“We basically are unofficial brothers.”

“Very true,” Scott said before giving a heavy sigh. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too, man,” Stiles said. “I feel like I’ve been gone a year and it hasn’t even been a day.”

“We’ll see each other soon though,” Scott said earnestly. “So, uh, how’d everything go before he ditched you today? Anything happen last night?”

“Kind of,” Stiles said, feeling his face heat up. “I mean, we made out and then he gave me the mating bite. We haven’t kissed again since then.”

“You sound disappointed.”

“I am.”

“I thought you’d be happy that you got an Alpha who wanted to take things slow.”

“Well, yeah, but I was expecting more than this.”

“Maybe he’s just nervous.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Except he didn’t know what Derek had to be nervous about. He was gorgeous with a ton of money and a beautiful mansion in his name. Any Omega would be honored to have him and Stiles wasn’t going to lie and say that he wasn’t pretty happy with his choice too.

But the Derek who had flirted with him on that balcony was gone and now he was stuck with a Derek who didn’t even want to be in the same room as him.

“What if he leaves me alone for my heat?” Stiles asked.

“He won’t.”

“But if he does?” Stiles pressed. “I’ve heard about Omegas spending heats alone. They make it through but it’s an entire week of being miserable and jacking off but never being able to feel satisfied and apparently they don’t even remember most of it and some get PTSD and—”

“He’s not going to leave you alone.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because he’s going to smell you and not be able to stay away,” Scott said. “He’d have to go to the other side of the country to get away from your scent.”

Okay, Scott had a point.

“Call me when it’s over,” Scott said. “I have a date with Allison and—”

“Tell her I said hi.”

“I will,” Scott promised. “Good luck.”

After a round of goodbyes, Stiles hung up. He continued to sit in silence, contemplating calling his dad, but deciding against it. If he and Ms. McCall were together, then he wasn’t going to do anything to stop that. He wanted his dad to be happy and he knew that since Stiles had left he was probably going to get lonely soon.

He made his way to the boxes with his clothes and looked through them, finally finding a pair of worn khakis and a t-shirt. He quickly stripped out of the clothes he was wearing before changing into the ones he had taken out. A sigh of relief made its way out of him and he was so happy to have some normalcy back in his life.

And that was when there was a knock on the door.

It was probably Isaac wanting to know if he could iron his pants or something so Stiles just told him to come in.

“You look more comfortable.”

Stiles turned around, feeling his body heat up as it reacted to his Alpha and he really wished he could control that.

“Uh, huh?” he said intelligently.

“Your clothes,” Derek said, closing the door behind him and walking toward Stiles. “You look more comfortable.”

“Uh, yeah,” Stiles shrugged. “Yay t-shirts.”

“I’m sorry for leaving so abruptly,” Derek said. “I had to find Boyd and make sure everything was still in order.”

“You could have told me before disappearing.”

“I’m sorry,” Derek repeated. “It won’t happen again.”

“Okay,” Stiles said. “Good.”

Derek stuffed his hands in his pockets, looking around the room. Stiles drummed his fingers on the surface of the desk he was standing next to.

And then Derek was wrapping his arms around Stiles’ waist and hoisting him up on the desk and kissing him and, okay, Stiles could get used to this.

He made a small noise in the back of his throat before threading his fingers through Derek’s hair and kissing him back. Kissing was good, he could do that, he was becoming the champion of kissing. And Derek seemed to like kissing him, slipping his hands under his shirt and holding him close and thrusting his tongue into his mouth.

Except Stiles kind of wanted to talk instead of kiss.

“Derek,” he managed to get out when Derek latched onto his neck, pulling the bandage off of his skin to reveal the bite. “Can you slow down? Not that I don’t like this, because you’re really good at this, but yesterday you mentioned something about talking and I really like talking, not that I don’t  like kissing, but—”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh, hey, you’re back.”

“I’m sorry,” Derek repeated and Stiles was really getting tired of him apologizing. “I never expected… I never planned to have a… I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“That makes two of us,” Stiles said, pressing his forehead against Derek’s and enjoying the feel of Derek’s fingers stroking the skin of his sides. “And no big deal. You’re a good kisser.”

“My instincts are telling me to just hold you down and take you.”

“Well, you can do that tonight.”

His face heated up at that and he avoided Derek’s gaze. Stiles’ own instincts were telling him to let Derek hold him down and take him, so it wasn’t like what they wanted was so different.

“No, I can’t.”

“What?”

“I’m not going to spend your heat with you.”

“Bullshit.”

“Stiles.”

“Bull fucking shit.”

“ _Stiles_.”

“I don’t want this either,” Stiles said. “I don’t want to be mated. I’m _15_ for fuck’s sake. I turn 16 in less than two weeks. I’m practically married and you can’t even—you don’t even have the decency to spend my heat with me so that I won’t be miserable and—”

“You’d never forgive me.”

And Stiles wasn’t expecting that. He didn’t really know what he had been expecting in the first place, but it definitely hadn’t been _that_.

“I don’t understand,” Stiles said slowly.

“Stiles, how would you expect your first time going?” Derek asked.

“Uh, well, probably really frantic and sweaty and desperate and confusing and I wouldn’t remember much of it,” Stiles said.

“And how would you want it to go?”

Not like that.

He wanted a Beta’s first time. He wanted what Scott had told him about his first time with Allison. Maybe a little awkward and maybe not the best sex, but with someone he loved and it would be something he remembered and something that felt safe and right.

“I don’t know,” Stiles shrugged.

“Yes you do.”

Stiles sighed, looking at Derek who was looking so earnest and _sad_. Come to think of it he couldn’t really remember when Derek hadn’t looked sad. Sure he could make it look like he was happy, but somehow Stiles knew that an underlying layer of sadness was always there.

“Slow,” he said. “I’d want to take my time. I’d want it to feel safe and unhurried. I’d want it to be with someone who I know and love and trust.”

It was unbelievably sappy and a little embarrassing, but it was the truth. And judging by Derek’s face he recognized that.

“And would it be like that for your heat?” Derek asked.

“No, but I don’t want to be alone and miserable for it.”

“It’s not as bad as people make it out to be,” Derek said. “I had some cousins who were Omegas and one of them spent her first heat alone. She definitely wasn’t comfortable, but she made it through without any major trauma.”

“Y’know, you’re not that good at comforting people.”

“I know. I’ll try to work on it.”

Derek leaned forward then, pressing their mouths together and Stiles sagged into it a bit, happy that Derek wasn’t so turned off by him that he didn’t want to kiss him.

“Um,” Stiles said, his lips still pressed awkwardly against Derek’s. “Are you going to be okay for the heat?”

“What do you mean?” Derek asked, leaning back slightly.

“Well, you’re a werewolf and there’s going to be a lot of pheromones in the air and we’re kind of mated.”

“I won’t be staying at the estate.”

“Then who’s going to make sure I don’t die?”

“Isaac and Boyd will be here.”

And that wasn’t exactly the most comforting news, but if Derek was confident in the two Betas, then Stiles figured he should be as well.

“Do you want to finish unpacking or do you want the rest of the tour?” Derek asked.

Stiles raised an eyebrow at that, placing his hands on Derek’s shoulders. “Are you going to be giving the tour?”

“Unless you want Isaac to do it.”

“Nope, I definitely want it to be you,” Stiles said, sliding off of the desk before looking around for his shoes.

“Stiles, what are you doing?”

“My shoes should be in one of these boxes,” he said, prying open one of the cardboard boxes with his clothes in it before Derek took his hand and tugged him away.

“Did you walk around your father’s house with shoes on?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Despite its looks, this is actually home too,” Derek said. “I was the only one who lived here for six years and I honestly don’t care if you wear shoes or not.”

And that was really all of the encouragement Stiles needed to shove the box aside and follow Derek out of the room. Isaac wasn’t in the sitting room outside anymore and Stiles only got a glimpse at Derek’s closed bedroom door before he was being steered out of the sitting room and back into the hall.

**OoOoOoO**

There was a bowling alley in the basement.

For some reason Stiles felt like that was important to point out. The entire house was impressive, but there was a bowling alley and Stiles just found that extra impressive. Sure it looked run-down and no one had probably played a game in years, but it was still functional.

There were also a thousand different bedrooms and bathrooms and Stiles was torn between being even more impressed and just sad. It was clear that this house was made for a ton of people, but Derek was the only one who had lived in it for years. Isaac and Boyd only visited during the days and they had weekends off. Stiles couldn’t even begin to understand how lonely Derek was.

After finishing a tour of the final floor, Stiles headed back to his room to finally get his shoes so that they could head outside. He grabbed his phone from where he had left it, seeing that he had a new text from Allison saying that he should call her when he got the chance.

Dinnertime was starting to creep up on them, so he decided to call her afterward before heading to bed. Stuffing the phone in his pocket, Stiles left the room and once again followed Derek into the hallway.

“So,” Stiles said once they exited the house and started to walk on the lands. “Do your sister and uncle visit you a lot?”

“Not really,” Derek said. “It’s mostly just for Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

“What about birthdays?”

“I get a card from both of them every year.”

“A card?” Stiles asked. “That’s all you get for your birthday?”

“Not to sound full of myself, but there aren’t a lot of things that I don’t already have.”

Stiles looked back at the house behind him and, okay, he got that.

“Yeah, but a birthday present doesn’t have to be a material thing.”

“Well then what would you get me for a birthday present?”

“I don’t know,” Stiles shrugged. “I just met you yesterday.”

Derek chuckled at that, slipping his hands into his pockets and shaking his head. “That’s a good answer.”

“Thanks.”

They continued toward the garden with random small talk and Stiles trying to take in everything around him. Even if he was going to spend the rest of his life here, that didn’t stop him from feeling overwhelmed. Somehow a lifetime didn’t feel like it would be enough time to take everything in.

“We should talk about school,” Derek said.

“What about it?”

“You want to continue, right?”

“Well, yeah, but that’s kind of up to you, isn’t it?”

Derek made a face at that. “It’s up to you. If you want to continue then you should continue. There’s a high school in town or you can get a home tutor. It’s your choice.”

He really did luck out with Derek, didn’t he? Thinking back to his conversation with Richardson, who wanted to keep Stiles locked away forever, Stiles really could see the difference between them and maybe, just maybe, not all Alphas were possessive assholes.

Going to a public school like he had in Beacon Hills was some kind of a strange comfort, but he really didn’t want to be the lone mated Omega in a class of strangers. Getting a home tutor seemed a bit like accepting being sheltered, but it was better than being a pariah. He hadn’t been exactly popular in Beacon Hills either and without Scott and Allison to have his back, he really didn’t think he’d survive.

“A tutor would be fine,” he said. “I do want to be able to go into town though. I don’t want to spend every day locked inside the estate. Even though I doubt I’d go stir crazy since it’s huge, but I want to get out.”

Derek stopped walking then, turning to face Stiles and this was it. Here came the evil Alpha who was fine with Stiles being independent just as long as he was being independent inside of Derek’s house. He was probably going to lock Stiles into one of the towers and he’d have to have his meals brought to him by a crying Isaac who was scared of Derek and just wanted to help Stiles.

“You don’t have to ask, Stiles,” Derek said. “If you want to go into town, go into town. You’re a free person; I’m your mate, not your prison guard.”

“Alphas like you aren’t supposed to exist.”

Way to go Stilinski (or was it Hale now? He didn’t even know), way to say it out loud.

“What do you mean?” Derek asked.

Well it was too late to back out now.

“Everything I’ve heard about Alphas make them seem commanding and cruel and possessive and you’re just… not.”

“Are you complaining?”

“No, I’m just worried that this is all an act and that you’re going to end up hurting me sometime down the road.”

“Stiles,” Derek said, taking a step toward him and cupping his face in his hands. “I’m your mate. I’m the one you chose. And I hate to say that you’re right. I probably will end up hurting you, but not because I’m an Alpha and you’re an Omega. I’ll end up hurting you because of who I am as a person and when I do that I want you to at least have your freedom.”

And that was definitely the most confusing thing anyone had ever told him. Anger was probably a normal reaction to someone saying something like that, but Stiles couldn’t find it in himself to be angry. Because Derek just looked so sad and Stiles just wanted to help him.

“Someone really hurt you, didn’t they?” Stiles asked eventually.

Derek pulled away from him, flinching like he had been burned (and wow, definitely not a good choice of words). He avoiding looking at Stiles, choosing to look at the estate with anger and hatred and this definitely ran down a lot deeper than Stiles had ever thought. It looked like Derek wanted to lash out at him and Stiles would have almost welcomed a raw and _real_ emotion coming from Derek. The Alpha suppressed it though, nodding toward a greenhouse that was in the center of the first (out of numerous) garden.

“Boyd should be working in there,” Derek said. “Ask him to give you a tour of the grounds; I have some work I need to finish. I’ll see you at dinner.”

And with that Derek was walking back to the house, hands in his pockets and shoulders tense. Stiles had definitely stepped on a nerve, and he was half regretting having said something and half being happy that he _had_ said something. He didn’t want there to be secrets and he didn’t want there to be walls built up between them. Stiles may not know close to anything about Derek Hale, but he wasn’t going to stop that from trying to make this work.

Because neither of them really had a choice.

He headed toward the greenhouse, debating between knocking and just walking in when the door opened and a man was standing in front of him. He was taller and broader than Stiles with a shaved head and a kind of ridiculously impressive unimpressed look on his face.

“You’re Stiles,” he said, turning around and heading back into the greenhouse.

A man of few words. Stiles could respect that.

“Uh, yeah,” Stiles said, following him inside and looking around at the assortment of plants. “You must be Boyd. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Uh-huh.”

Okay, _very_ few words.

“So, Derek said something about a tour, but if you’re busy I could just explore by myself.”

“Just let me finish up here,” Boyd said, sitting on a stool in front of a work station and grabbing a pencil.

“What are you working on?” Stiles asked, walking next to him and peering at his notebook.

And then Boyd promptly closed the notebook.

“I’m a botanist,” Boyd said. “I’m studying plants.”

“I can see that,” Stiles said. “So, what’s a botanist doing working on this estate? Derek said you took care of the grounds.”

“I do,” Boyd said and Stiles could tell by his tone that he was definitely pushing it. “Have you seen this place? Almost every single species of plant is here. If I take care of the grounds, Derek allows me to study.”

Stiles nodded, choosing for once in his life to not say anything. Instead he chose to look around the greenhouse, noticing the different plants. His attention was eventually brought back to Boyd and the plant he was studying.

“So, I’m guessing you’re not a werewolf.”

There was a deep sigh from Boyd and Stiles winced a bit.

“I am,” Boyd said.

“Then why are you looking so closely at wolf’s bane?”

“I’m studying it.”

“But why?”

“Because it’s a different kind of wolf’s bane.”

“How?”

“Because clearly it isn’t affecting me,” Boyd said. “I’m a werewolf and this is wolf’s bane and I’m not affected. Doesn’t that seem worth studying?”

Okay. He wasn’t going to argue with that.

“You know what, I’ll just look around the gardens myself,” Stiles said. “I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

“Wait,” Boyd said just as Stiles turned toward the door. “I’ll come with you.”

Before he could even process anything, Boyd was placing a hand on Stiles’ shoulder and steering him out of the greenhouse and back into the garden. He started to walk without another word and Stiles followed, not knowing if he should say anything or not.

“I overheard your conversation with Hale.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little rude?”

“Yes, but I still overheard it.”

“Okay.”

“I’m happy that you’re here.”

Now Stiles was just confused. The guy had gone from sending him death glares after asking questions about plants and now he was admitting to eavesdropping and saying that he was happy that Stiles was there.

“Uh, thanks,” Stiles said. “I’m happy to be here too.”

“No you’re not.”

“Okay, how do you know that?”

“Because you have way too much freewill to be an Omega,” Boyd said. “Right now you probably want to be at home sleeping in on a Sunday and worrying about a Chemistry test.”

“More like worrying about Omega Behavioral classes.”

Boyd smirked at that, shaking his head. “You see what I mean?”

And of course Stiles did. He did want to be home and even though he was supposed to call this new place home, he just couldn’t. Home was where people he cared about were and that was Beacon Hills, not here.

He actually wished he could be a freshman in high school again and sitting through all of those Omega classes he had to take. Most of them were about how to be the perfect Omega and how to submit and how to bake cookies and do laundry (and he already knew how to do both, thanks). The embarrassing ones were about how their bodies would react to Alphas. Classes had been separated between boys and girls and he still had nightmares about sitting next to Jackson Whittemore as their instructor described how they would want to submit. How their bodies would warm up and there would be slick between their thighs.

This, y’know, was just peachy to talk about in a room of teenage boys who were horny enough as it was. It all made sense that Jackson and Lydia had decided to just do the deed beforehand. Why wait?

Except that there were mating laws and regulations and Jackson and Lydia had only gotten off easy because Jackson’s father was one of the most respected lawyers (and Alphas) in Beacon Hills. After that incident there had been stricter rules. Mating had always been sacred and precise and now it had to be done according to a schedule.

And Stiles was just now realizing that he and Derek weren’t going to follow the schedule. They had been doing everything else according to plan, but to seal the mating Derek would have to knot (which was a combination of terrifying and arousing) Stiles for the first time during his heat. If they weren’t spending his heat together then how were they going to complete the mating?

He mentally added that to his list of things to ask Derek at dinner.

“So, gardens,” Boyd said after a while, clearly not wanting to interrupt Stiles’ thought process. “Do you want the tour?”

“Uh, yeah,” Stiles said, nodding. “The tour would be awesome.”

**OoOoOoO**

After taking a tour with Boyd he headed inside, going up to his room and taking a shower before panicking about what to wear. Dinner felt like it would be formal and this house was formal and then he remembered Derek’s remark about being barefoot and he forgot about trying to look nice. He changed back into the khakis he had been wearing and a clean t-shirt before heading downstairs.

During his tour with Derek he had been shown the dining hall (ridiculously impressive and intimidating) before being steered away to a breakfast room that was much homier. The dining hall hadn’t been used in years and the breakfast room was where Derek always ate.

Stiles entered the room, seeing Derek already sitting at the table. He had a laptop in front of him (and Stiles would have to ask for the Wi-Fi password soon) and was wearing sweatpants and a wife beater and Stiles definitely wasn’t staring. Last night he had seen Derek in just his underwear, but for some reason this felt even more personal.

“Are you just going to stand there or are you going to sit down?” Derek asked, never taking his eyes off of the laptop.

“Sitting,” Stiles said. “Definitely going to sit.”

He took a seat next to Derek, fighting the urge to glance at the laptop screen. Isaac came into the room a few moments later, standing next to Stiles with a big grin on his face.

“So, dinner for the newlyweds,” he said. “What’ll it be?”

“Anything Stiles wants is fine,” Derek said offhandedly, still focusing on the laptop.

“Uh, what do you have?” Stiles asked.

For lunch Isaac had made them sandwiches so that they could eat them as Derek gave the tour, but now he was feeling put on the spot. Especially since Derek was being so cold-shouldered.

“Everything,” Isaac shrugged. “I’ll ask you for all of your favorite foods and if you have any allergies after your heat.”

He knew what he should say. He should ask for a salad and a chicken breast without the skin and something bland like always. But Isaac had said that they had everything and Derek had told him that he could pick, so it wasn’t like he was going to not take advantage of this.

“Surprise me with something that isn’t healthy,” he said, because he honestly didn’t know what food other than junk food wasn’t bland and disgusting.

Isaac chuckled, nodding his head. “I can do that.”

He headed back into the kitchen and Stiles slumped back in his seat. He sneaked a peek at Derek who was actually looking at him with something that actually looked fond.

“I’m sorry,” Derek said, reaching out and taking Stiles’ hand. “For abandoning you in the gardens and for what I said. I don’t know what I was saying.”

“Yeah you did,” Stiles said, interlacing their fingers. “And I don’t really understand, but I want to. I don’t want you to regret accepting me.”

“And I don’t want you regretting choosing me,” Derek sighed. “I’m not the perfect Alpha, Stiles, or the perfect man. But I hope I can at least make this all bearable.”

“I understand,” Stiles nodded. “Um, I was wondering about my heat though. Our mating won’t be complete until you, uh, knot me during my heat and since you’re not spending my heat with me I was wondering how that’s going to work.”

“Well, I just figured that we could do that during a future heat,” Derek said. “Whether it’s next year or the year after that, or ten years from now.”

“Oh, okay.”

That was fine. It would mean that Derek couldn’t knot him anytime between now and his next heat (because there was no way Stiles was going to wait more than a year for that, despite what his feelings for Derek would be a year from now). He just nodded and it seemed like everything was starting to sink in. This was his home now and this was his life and Derek was his mate and okay, he could have done a lot worse than this. Maybe Derek himself wasn’t the most kind and cheerful of guys, but he was definitely very big on consent and Stiles’ freedom. He honestly couldn’t ask for more in that sense.

They ate dinner (hamburgers and French fries and Stiles definitely gave Isaac a high five for it) before Derek walked him back to his room. Stiles sat down on the edge of the bed, biting his thumbnail and looking at Derek who was standing in the doorway.

“I’m leaving tonight,” Derek said. “It’ll be before your heat starts, I’ll be far enough away so that I can control myself.”

“Okay,” Stiles said, nodding.

“I’ll see you soon,” Derek said, turning around.

“Wait.”

Derek froze and Stiles stood up, making his way across the room. He was standing behind the Alpha when he realized what he had done. He had told an Alpha to wait and an Alpha had listened to the Omega. His parents had been able to do that, but he was pretty sure even Lydia wouldn’t let Jackson boss her around.

“Yes?” Derek asked, turning around again.

“I just want a decent goodbye,” Stiles shrugged.

Elaborating didn’t seem to be something he needed to do, because Derek pressed his back against the doorframe before kissing him. Stiles tried to make it last as long as he could, tried to make everything about Derek stay with him so that he had something to remember during his heat. He wanted to remember Derek’s hands on his skin and his stubble against his chin and neck and his lips and teeth and _definitely_ his tongue.

“Satisfied?” Derek asked once he had pulled away, leaving Stiles more than a little breathless.

“Yeah,” he breathed, nodding. “That was- I mean, yeah, that was… good.”

Derek smiled (and Stiles still couldn’t tell if it was real or not) before pressing their mouths together one more time. “You’re going to be just fine.”

Stiles nodded and Derek kissed his forehead before walking across the sitting room to his own room. He got a peek inside before Derek closed the door, just seeing a lot of red before seeing the closed door. Sighing, he turned and headed back into his own room, closing the door behind him.

After changing into a pair of pajama pants, Stiles grabbed his phone and fell back onto his bed before calling Allison. She picked up on the third ring and it took him all of two seconds for him to figure out that Scott was there too.

And for him to figure out what they were doing.

“Oh come on,” he groaned. “You couldn’t have just let me leave a message?”

“I wanted to talk to you,” Allison said, her breath hitching slightly before she started to giggle. “Scott, stop it. I’m on the phone with—oh my…Scott, _Scott_ , stop—”

“I’m just gonna call back.”

“No, nonononono,” she said. “I’m out of the bed; I’m sitting at my desk. He looks a little upset, but he’ll deal.”

“He’s making that wounded puppy look, isn’t he?” Stiles asked.

“Yep,” Allison confirmed.

“Be strong, Argent.”

“I’ll try,” she said. “So how has your day been and are you getting ready for your night?”

The suggestive tone was loud and clear and so was the groan Scott gave from the other line.

“And that’s my cue to go home,” Scott said. “I’ll talk to you later, buddy.”

“Bye man,” Stiles said, listening as Scott and Allison kissed and said their goodbyes.

“All right, back on topic,” Allison said. “So, first of all, how’s the house?”

“You mean the ginormous mansion that I’m going to get lost in every day?” he asked, looking up at the canopy (a freaking canopy) above him. “It’s… amazing. Really, _really_ amazing. The library itself is awesome and there’s a swimming pool and a bowling alley.”

“Sounds more like a castle than a home.”

“Feels that way,” he sighed.

And it did. Because despite the Hale Estate being incredible and amazing and breathtaking, it just wasn’t a home. It didn’t even feel like a home to Derek and he had lived there his entire life. Maybe before the fire things had been different, but right now it felt like living in a museum.

“I’ve tried to look up pictures online, but there aren’t any,” Allison said. “I sent Derek’s sister a friend request on Facebook, but she ignored it. I was hoping I could get some pictures off of there.”

“Well I can send you a few,” Stiles said. “Or you guys could visit.”

“Visit?” she asked. “I don’t know, I don’t want to mess up the newlywed routine.”

“It’s not very newlywed,” Stiles assured. “He’s not going to spend my heat with me.”

“What?”

“He wants me to have a first time like I want and not something that I won’t remember.”

“He sounds romantic.”

“I was going for old-fashioned.”

“Stiles, they used to marry off Omegas when they were 13,” Allison said.

“Fifteen isn’t that big of a difference.”

“Your birthday is next Saturday.”

“Sixteen isn’t either.”

There was a sigh from the other line and Stiles just knew that she was thinking. He had known Allison for years, ever since Scott had proposed to her in the fifth grade after she had moved to Beacon Hills. A werewolf hunter and a werewolf never seemed to make a good couple, but a mating counselor had pronounced them something rare, true mates. Even though Allison was a human and Scott wasn’t made for her, she was made for Scott and anyone would think that it went both ways. They were crazy about each other and would risk their lives for the other.

Of course Stiles had been pushed to the side after she had moved into Scott’s life, but it was only weeks later when she dragged him back in, making them a trio. Even though Scott would always be his best friend, Allison felt like his sister and he knew when she was hiding things from him.

Like she was right now.

“What is it?” he asked.

“It could be nothing.”

“Allison.”

“Derek came to the Opening Ceremony,” she said. “Scott and I were late, so we had to stand at the back. Derek came through the backdoor and he stood next to us. He didn’t care about any of the Omegas, but when you came on stage everything about him changed. He just softened up and he looked at you like you were the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

“And then during the ball, when you were being introduced, he had that same look on his face. All throughout dinner some rich investor tried to talk to him, but he just focused on you. And when you were dancing with Alpha Richardson it looked like he was trying to force himself not to take you away.

“Stiles,” she said. “He wants you. And not mating with you until he has your complete consent, until you want him for him and not when you just want an Alpha to make your heat bearable, is probably him trying to court you.”

“Court me?”

“Take you on dates, get to know him, maybe fool around and never go all the way.”

“Sounds like two Betas.”

“And isn’t that what you want?”

They said goodbye soon after that and Stiles just lied in his bed, thinking about everything she had told him. Derek did say that he wanted to make this work and maybe it could work like two Betas. Of course they were living together, but it was a big house and it probably wouldn’t feel like they were living together.

Derek wanting to get to know him and wanting to take things slow was kind of all he wanted. And doing that with someone who looked like Derek seemed like a very good thing.

Of course when he woke up at 3 AM feeling like he was going to spontaneously combust he was cursing Derek Hale for not staying with him.

Because this was just— _horrible_. And he couldn’t think straight and his dick was insanely hard and he had already come in his pants, so that was just great.

Stiles kicked the comforter and sheets off of himself before stripping out of his clothes and lying back in bed and just… just… not thinking. He couldn’t think, no matter how much he tried and all he could think about when he managed to get a thought in was Derek. Derek, his Alpha, his scent, his hands, his mouth, his voice, his everything.

This didn’t help though, it only made him want Derek more and he whimpered slightly, feeling abandoned and tossed to the side like he was nothing. Stiles put his face in his hands, willing himself not to touch himself and not to think about Derek and—and _Derek_.

He sighed, reaching down and wrapping a hand around himself and coming after one stroke. Stiles was panting into the crook of his elbow as he continued to jerk off, biting his bottom lip with tears stinging at his eyes, and mixed emotions clouding up his system. Eventually (and eventually being one minute) jacking off his cock didn’t do anything, it wasn’t enough, and he moaned, burrowing his face into one of the pillows on the bed before slipping his fingers inside of himself.

Stiles let out a strangled groan as he crooked his fingers, rutting into the mattress and coming again. Still it wasn’t enough and he knew that he needed Derek, needed his Alpha’s knot to breed him and get this over with so that he could rest. He knew that Derek wasn’t going to come for him, but instinct was taking over and the Omega inside of him knew that his mate would come for him. Four fingers delved into his slick heat and he bit into his pillow and squeezed his eyes shut before pumping his fingers in and out of himself.

Any second now and his mate would come.

It was only a matter of time.

**OoOoOoO**

Stiles woke up in his bed at the Hale Estate feeling tired and sore and anything but sated. He was also kind of cold, probably because his bed didn’t have any sheets on it. The sun was blinding him through the window and he sat up, head pounding, covering his eyes with a hand. His phone was on the bedside table and he picked it up, seeing that it was the day after his heat.

And he didn’t remember anything.

Which could be very good or very bad.

He was also naked which he got, but where were his sheets?

“Good morning,” Isaac greeted as he entered his room, carrying a pile of clean sheets.

“Morning,” Stiles said.

Once again he realized that he was naked and he got off the bed, looking to where the cardboard boxes had been to see that they had been moved.

“Closet,” Isaac said. “It’s the door on the right and the bathroom is right next to it.”

“Thanks,” Stiles said, before quickly leaving the room.

It was too quickly though because when he reached the closet he was feeling light-headed. Stiles groaned, steadying himself on the doorframe as he looked in the closet. He didn’t recognize half of the clothes in there (button-downs, suits, dress shoes, vests, even a few scarves), but he ignored them and headed toward the small area with jeans and plaid shirts and graphic t-shirts. He grabbed a t-shirt and a pair of boxers and sweatpants before stumbling over to the bathroom.

Stiles couldn’t even appreciate the bathroom (the Jacuzzi tub, the heated floors, the framed painting that probably cost more than his house in Beacon Hills, the imported toilet from Japan) because he was heading for the shower. It had six more shower heads than he was used to and a steam option, but it was a shower and he could make that work.

He sat on the bench in the shower and messed with the steam option until it was nice and warm. It was kind of weird considering that he had just gone through a miserable heat, but the steam soothed out all of the cricks in his back and neck and an ice cold shower sounded terrible.

After taking a ridiculously long shower (and discovering that all of his body hair had grown back thanks to a week of multiplied hormones), Stiles dried off and then changed into his clothes. He brushed his teeth before heading back into his room, towel-drying as he went.

Isaac was still there, now looking like he was dusting even though Stiles knew he was waiting for him.

“How bad was it?” Stiles asked, sitting on the cushioned bench at the end of his bed.

“Well on the good side, only Boyd and I remember it,” Isaac said. “And on the bad side, it was really bad.”

“Oh God,” Stiles groaned, placing his face in his hands. “What happened?”

“Not much, really,” Isaac said. “It was basically just a repetition of things. You jerked off until you were kind of lucid and I changed your sheets and made sure that you ate and made it to the bathroom. There was a lot of crying and moaning and begging for Derek. One time I think you propositioned Boyd.”

“You think?”

“Well, I know, but I thought you’d feel better if I said that I just thought that you did.”

“I’m gonna have to apologize,” Stiles said.

“That would be a good idea.”

“And say thank you,” Stiles said. “Seriously, Isaac thanks for putting up with me and for doing my laundry. Like really, thank you so much for the laundry.”

Isaac laughed, shaking his head. “I should be thanking you. I got all of your pheromones all over me. And that made the mate go crazy.”

“You have a mate?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I’d love to meet—”

“Derek’s back.”

“What?”

And just like that all thoughts of meeting Isaac’s mate went out of his mind. Isaac was smiling softly at him and he tilted his head toward the door. “Just walked into his room. He’s trying to be quiet because he wants to avoid you.”

If Isaac was going to say anything else after that, Stiles would never know. He bolted out of his room, heading across the hall into Derek’s without even knocking on the door. The room was bigger than Stiles' with a giant fireplace and a huge bed but he couldn’t even bring himself to care because Derek was back.

And Stiles was pissed off at him, but his heat had just ended and his Omega was still close to the surface and right now it was begging to be close to its Alpha. It seemed like Derek’s wolf was just as desperate, because he brought Stiles into his arms, inhaling his skin and giving a contented sigh.

“I missed you,” Derek said.

“I missed your body,” Stiles countered because he was such a romantic like that.

Derek laughed, pulling back and cupping his cheek. “I could feel you. I can’t remember the last time I jerked off that much.”

“Funny, neither could I.”

It was supposed to come off humorous, but Stiles could hear the bitterness in it. Derek frowned and nodded before stepping away from Stiles.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have—Stiles, I’m sorry, this week must have been—”

“I don’t remember it,” Stiles said. “Only Boyd and Isaac do and I don’t think they’re going to tell on me. It’s fine. I’m happy that you decided for us to wait, because if I didn’t remember my first time with you I’d… I’d be really sad.”

Derek stepped forward again, cautiously taking one of Stiles’ hands in his. “So, you’re all right?”

“Yeah,” Stiles said. “Even though I’m expecting an awesome present for my birthday on Saturday.”

“Consider it done,” Derek said before pulling Stiles into his arms and kissing him.


	2. Chapter 2

Stiles woke up on his 16th birthday with his head on someone’s lap and someone stroking his hair. This wasn’t a bad way to wake up; it was actually a pretty great way to wake up, so he hummed happily, snuggling into the flat stomach close to his face.

And then his eyes snapped open and he looked up to see Allison smiling down at him.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” she said, stopping her stroking and just resting her hand on his head. “Happy birthday.”

“Happy birthday!”

Stiles turned his head, seeing Scott at his desk and looking through the homework he had finished last night for his tutor.

“Man, who knew someone could write 20 pages about _Escape into Civilization_?”

“It’s a good book,” Allison said.

“It was okay,” Scott said, shrugging. “I think the commentary on Alphas was a bit harsh.”

“Yeah and how Omegas are treated in real life is just fine and dandy,” Stiles groaned, sitting up and leaning back against his headboard. “It’s not that I’m not happy to see you two, but how are you two here?”

“We drove,” Scott said.

“Yeah, okay, very funny.”

“Derek invited us,” Allison shrugged. “He called your dad and said that he and a few of your friends should come for your birthday.”

“My mom sends her apologies, by the way,” Scott said. “She couldn’t get off work.”

“That’s fine, I’ll call her later,” Stiles said. “Wait, my dad’s here?”

“Derek’s giving him a tour,” Allison said. “Isaac offered to give us one, but we just figured we’d wait for you to wake up.”

Stiles just nodded, looking from Allison to Scott and then back again. It was Saturday and he had spent the entire week at “school”. Derek had gotten him a private tutor, Mrs. Bayens, who was a happily mated Omega in her 40s. She was kind and ridiculously mild about math and science, but when it came to English and History she was so passionate that Stiles was always a little startled. Despite Mrs. Bayens being mated for a blissful (her word, not his) 30-some years, she was still very opinionated about mating and how the system should change.

He agreed with her on everything she said and his “Omega Behavior” classes were then switched with an hour long discussion between the two of them about how to change the laws for the better. But as much as they talked, the more they realized that not everyone was miserable with the mating process. Mrs. Bayens’ mate was the love of her life and whenever Derek came into the study to see how they were doing, she couldn’t help but watch them carefully before commenting to Stiles how Derek looked at him with so much fondness and touched him with care.

Her words got to him eventually and he couldn’t help but think about it every time he was close to Derek. Whether they were either silently reading in the library or eating dinner, Stiles just felt like he had to keep watching Derek, make sure that his Alpha wasn’t a horrible Alpha like the ones he had heard so much about.

And Derek wasn’t a horrible Alpha. He was good to not only Stiles (never kissing him unless Stiles either initiated it or gave him a nod of permission to proceed, always asking his opinion on things, listening to him when he rambled on about whatever he had learned with Mrs. Bayens, and they had only been mated for a week because heat week just didn’t count), but to the people of the town as well. The Hales had apparently been the leaders of the small region the estate was in the center of. Stiles had this information tucked in the back of his mind but for some reason it had never clicked until he realized that as the Hale still staying in the region that Derek was leading it as well.

The door to his bedroom opened and in walked his father and Derek. He couldn’t stop the smile starting to spread across his face even if he tried and Stiles pushed the covers off of him, getting out of bed, and heading straight into his father’s arms.

“Someone missed me,” the Sheriff chuckled, wrapping his arms tightly around Stiles. “Happy birthday. I have your pres—Wait.”

John placed his hands on Stiles’ shoulders, stepping away and scrutinizing his son.

“What?” Stiles asked. “Do I have pillow marks on my face or something?”

“You two haven’t completed the bond yet,” he said, eyes practically boring into Stiles. “And you’re not even sharing a room.”

“Uh, what do you mean?”

“I mean that I still feel like I’m your Alpha even though I shouldn’t feel anything at all.”

“Maybe it’s because you missed me.”

Realizing that he wasn’t going to get a straight answer from Stiles, John turned to Derek who was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest. “Care to explain?”

“We’ve completed everything except for the knotting,” Derek explained. “I didn’t want to rush him into anything.”

And that was the day Stiles died. Because Derek just mentioned knotting (and the lack of it in Stiles’ life) to his father. Allison and Scott were still in the room too and he didn’t even have to look at them to know that they both probably wanted to jump out of his window.

“He spent his heat alone,” John said, his voice steady but his face giving off an entirely different level of emotion.

“Yes,” Derek said simply.

Stiles stepped forward, placing his hands on his dad’s shoulders to try and calm him. It had worked before, when he was missing his mom or when he got frustrated over a new deputy over the stupidest thing. Omegas were supposed to exude a certain calmness and even though Stiles was usually a bundle of nerves, that didn’t mean that he didn’t know how to use his biological skills when he needed to.

John sagged slightly, still looking like he was about to rip Derek’s head from his shoulders, but now breathing deeply and trying to regain his cool.

“Dad, it’s fine,” Stiles said. “I don’t even remember my heat. Isaac and Boyd made sure I was fine. I’m happy that Derek left me alone for it.”

His dad wasn’t a werewolf, so hearing his heartbeat wasn’t an option, but Stiles thought that he did a good job of keeping his voice steady. Derek seemed to think that his heartbeat was just fine too because his face was satisfied and yep, smug.

The Sheriff sighed, shaking his head and looking back at Derek. “You do know what will happen if someone finds out about this, don’t you? You’re a leader of a region, Derek. If this gets out, he could get sent back to do the festival over again and they won’t let him choose you twice.”

“It’s not like I’m shouting it from the rooftops or anything,” Derek said. “The only people who know are in this room and my two Betas. And I won’t let anyone take him away.”

Something warm curled up inside of Stiles at that and he couldn’t help the smile that came over his face. There had never been any solid evidence from Derek himself that he was happy to have Stiles as his mate. This felt like something though and apparently the smile on his face was enough for Scott and Allison to slip out of the room and for his dad to give an exaggerated eye roll before leaving.

Derek placed his hands on Stiles’ hips, hoisting him up against a wall and leaning in for a kiss when Stiles had wrapped his legs around his waist. Kissing was always good with Derek. It was always warm and demanding and smooth. It was _experienced_ and Stiles was glad that at least one of them knew what they were doing.

“I am glad, you know,” Derek said once they had parted, planting kisses down Stiles’ neck as he held him. “To have you here.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. This place was starting to get empty.”

Stiles was then placed back on the ground, Derek giving him a small grin and putting a hand on his cheek before leaving the room. Even after a week of actually getting to know each other, Derek was still a complete mystery to Stiles. Everything about him was constantly changing and Stiles couldn’t think of a single thing that Derek had given him that was _real_.

Well, their conversation on the grounds the day before Stiles’ heat had been real, but Derek had shot that down completely afterward. Stiles hadn’t tried to bring it up and Derek acted like he had never even said it. If it wasn’t for Isaac giving Stiles random tidbits about Derek he would probably feel like he was mated to a complete stranger.

“So, regretting your choice?”

His dad was standing in front of him now and Stiles looked in the sitting room, noticing Isaac talking with Scott and Allison and Derek nowhere in sight.

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Dad.”

“We can tell the board that you two didn’t complete the mating, you can do the festival again,” the Sheriff said. “Who knows, maybe Alpha Richardson will be willing to accept you again.”

“I’m happy here.”

“I’ve seen you happy, this isn’t happy,” John sighed. “Derek seems to shut you out more than anything.”

“And how could I not be happy with that?”

“That didn’t sound sarcastic.”

“It wasn’t.”

“I’m not sure I’m following.”

“Dad, you’ve always known that I can’t keep myself out of trouble, that I’m always trying to solve something,” Stiles said. “And Derek is the biggest mystery I’ve ever come across.”

His dad just stared at him for a few seconds before laughing and shaking his head. “I should have known.”

“Besides, he’s good to me,” Stiles added, feeling his face heat up.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, he wants me to have freedom.”

“Well, I can’t fault him for that,” the Sheriff said. “But if he ever hurts you or refuses to complete the mating during your next heat, you tell me.”

“I will.”

“ _Stiles_.”

“I promise,” Stiles insisted. It was true too; there was no way he would keep quiet if Derek started hurting him in any way. Even though the comment Derek had made to him about Alphas being unable to hurt their Omegas was stuck in the back of his mind. “Now, I think you were saying something about a present.”

The Sheriff chuckled, placing a hand on Stiles’ shoulder before walking with him out of the room. “You sure you don’t want to wait until tonight for presents?”

“Just your present now,” Stiles said. “I think I’m going to space them out throughout the day. Assuming Scott and Allison got me something.”

He raised his voice slightly on the last sentence upon approaching Scott, Allison, and Isaac. The happy (stupidly happy) couple looked up at him and Allison smiled while Scott widened his eyes in mock horror.

“Dude, I totally forgot it was your birthday, I didn’t get you anything.”

“Yeah, yeah. Very funny.”

Stiles just shoved at his shoulder (only a little disappointed when Scott didn’t budge an inch) before heading out of the sitting room and into the hall. Scott, Allison, and his dad all followed him while Isaac stayed back in the sitting room, hands in his pockets and looking around awkwardly.

“You can come too,” Stiles said. “The more the merrier, right?”

Isaac’s face brightened up at that and he followed them, sidling up happily next to Scott. Throughout the week (seriously, heat week in no way counted) Stiles had stayed there, he had become closer to Isaac than anyone. He had talked to Isaac more than Derek and it was safe to say that he felt a weird sort of attachment to Isaac. Stiles really couldn’t explain why he felt so close to the Beta, but he wasn’t complaining since having a friend in his new life wasn’t a bad thing at all.

He had yet to find out who Isaac’s mate was, always seeming to get cut off when he asked about it. His initial thoughts about it being Boyd were squashed when Isaac told him that Boyd was mated to a beautiful blonde Beta named Erica. He had yet to meet her, but he knew he was getting closer each day thanks to his persistent befriending of Boyd.

It was a Saturday so Boyd wasn’t working and Stiles was about to ask why Isaac was there on a Saturday when they headed out the front doors. And then he was about to ask why they were heading outside to open presents when his dad gestured to what was parked in front of the house.

“You didn’t,” Stiles said, looking excitedly at his dad. “I mean obviously you did, but I never thought you would actually… I was saving up money for this.”

“Of course you would get upset with me about giving you what you wanted,” John sighed, tossing him the keys to the Jeep.

“Yeah, but I saved up money for this,” Stiles said. “All of those years I saved up tutoring and babysitting and you just give it to me.”

Working with kids was one of the approved jobs for unmated Omegas. They weren’t allowed to have normal part-time jobs, so working with children and improving their parenting skills early was the only thing that was allowed. He had been doing it ever since he turned 13 and he had actually enjoyed it.

Even though he’d never admit that to anyone.

“You worked hard for that money,” John said. “It’s still in your bank account too, completely untouched. I want you to use it for something other than a deathtrap.”

“It’s not a deathtrap,” Stiles said.

“That I’m regretting buying you,” his dad said. “Especially since Derek owns so many cars that all have high safety rates.”

“Yeah, but those are his cars and this one’s mine,” Stiles said proudly, patting the hood of the Jeep. “That I can’t drive because I don’t have a license.”

“You also need to learn how to drive a stick-shift too.”

“Of course.”

“Isn’t that Camaro a manual transmission?” Scott asked. “You can always get Derek to teach you.”

“He’s probably too busy.”

“I’m sure he won’t mind,” Isaac chimed in.

Stiles glared at them and Scott and Isaac both just laughed, shaking their heads. Allison walked up next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

“They’re both just jealous because they still ride bikes everywhere,” Allison said. “Neither of them having an engine.”

“Derek lets me borrow his cars when I do errands for him,” Isaac said.

“And what about when you’re not running errands?”

“All right, fine. I ride my bike.”

Stiles and Allison laughed while the other two just rolled their eyes, trying not to act like it didn’t bother them too much. He could feel his dad watching him from the corner of his eye and Stiles didn’t want to think about it too much. Despite Stiles being safe and well cared for at Derek’s home it didn’t stop the fact that he wasn’t settled in. This didn’t feel like home, it all felt like an extended vacation and when everyone left after his birthday he would be going home with them.

“How about I drive the Jeep into the garage and you go get ready for your big day?” the Sheriff suggested, grabbing the keys from Stiles. “You’re still in your pajamas.”

“Good point,” Stiles said. “Kinda hungry too.”

“I’ll get started on breakfast,” Isaac said. “What do you want?”

“Pancakes, lots and lots of pancakes, preferably the chocolate chip kind.”

“You got it,” Isaac said before heading inside.

His dad was frowning disapprovingly at him. “Stiles, you shouldn’t be eating so much junk food.”

“Dad, it’s my birthday,” Stiles said, rolling his eyes. “Besides, I’m mated. I can eat what I want.”

“You know that the rule is that an Omega can do what their Alpha says they can do, don’t you?”

Stiles didn’t know what to say to that, so he shrugged before heading toward the door. His dad got in the Jeep and Scott and Allison followed, both oblivious to what Stiles was thinking. He thought that Omegas had more freedom after being mated, but apparently the freedom he had been feeling was just Derek allowing him to be free.

They weren’t completely mated either and what would happen when they did complete the mating? Would Derek be more controlling then?

He pushed the thoughts out of his head, not wanting to have his birthday be plagued by negativity on a day that was supposed to be about him. After taking a shower and changing into some clean clothes (and going for a blazer instead of a hoodie even though his t-shirt probably ruined the effect), he headed into his room, drying his hair with a towel.

Derek was sitting at his desk, reading his essay on _Escape into Civilization_ with his eyebrows knitted together. Stiles walked toward him, tossing the towel into his hamper as he walked.

“Isaac’s making pancakes,” Stiles said, looking over his shoulder to see what part of the essay he was on.

“I’ll go down with you,” Derek said, flipping a page. “You really hate Alphas.”

“It’s an essay about the main character’s view of Alphas.”

“Sounds like you share some of the same opinions.”

“I might,” Stiles said uneasily. “I don’t think about you or my dad like that.”

He could feel how unconvinced Derek was through their bond, but he blocked it out, not wanting to think about that on his birthday. This was supposed to be a happy day. This was supposed to be his day and it had been good so far, he didn’t want to ruin it over an essay he had written.

“So, pancakes,” Stiles said, taking the essay from Derek’s hands and placing it on the desk. “Sounds good, huh?”

Derek stood up, giving Stiles a small smile. “Yeah, sounds good.”

Stiles smiled back and it only grew when Derek took his hand, lacing their fingers together before leading him out of the room.

“My dad got me a Jeep,” Stiles said as they headed downstairs to the breakfast room. “But I need to learn how to drive a stick-shift.”

“I’m sure I can find someone to teach you.”

“Uh, I was hoping you could teach me actually.”

“I’d love to, but I’m busy a lot,” Derek said. “It’s a miracle I could get today off.”

“It’s a Saturday.”

“My region has been expanding lately. I don’t have a lot of time to myself and that extends to my mate.”

“Oh,” Stiles said. “Well, yeah, just find someone to teach me then. That’ll work.”

The rest of the walk to the breakfast room was in an uncomfortable silence until they reached the door to the room. Allison, Scott, and his dad were already sitting down and Stiles peeked in before turning to Derek.

“So, I’m assuming you have an awesome birthday present for me.”

“You’re assuming right.”

“And when will I get this present?”

“Tonight.”

“Well that sounds sexual.”

“It’s not.”

“Can you stop flirting so we can eat?” Scott asked from the breakfast room.

Stiles rolled his eyes before heading into the room. “You’re one to talk. I don’t know how many times I’ve walked in on you and Allison getting it on.”

“Can we please not talk about this before eating?” the Sheriff asked.

“I second that,” Allison said just as Isaac came in with plates stacked with pancakes.

He served them all before walking back toward the kitchen and when Stiles told him that he could stay he wasn’t shy about making a plate for himself and taking a seat next to Derek. There were a few minutes of companionable silence due to eating before his dad went into interrogation mode on Derek.

“So, how have things been in the region lately?” John asked. “Everything running smoothly?”

“Yeah,” Derek shrugged, looking in the Sheriff’s eyes without any hesitation. “Trade is at an all-time high for us and we’ve expanded recently.”

“Expanded?” the Sheriff repeated. “You must be busy.”

Derek nodded, eating another bite of his pancakes. “It should calm down soon.”

“It should,” John said. “I don’t want you leaving Stiles alone a lot. This is the most important time for mated couples, to stabilize the mating. Since you two didn’t complete it I’d think that this would be even more important.”

“I know,” Derek said. “There’s not really a lot I can do about it though.”

“Well you are the leader of this region, surely you can make free time for yourself.”

“I have responsibilities.”

“Yeah, to your mate.”

“And to the people of this town,” Derek pressed. “Everything will calm down soon and then I can dedicate as much time as possible to Stiles and our mating.”

“Which I’m extremely excited for,” Stiles cut in, choosing to save Derek from his dad. “I don’t want to have to keep missing you.”

It was a cheesy line and something that Scott and Allison were more likely to use, but it wasn’t exactly untrue. Sure, he barely knew Derek, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t miss him. He wanted him constantly and he still wasn’t sure if it was because of his Omega missing its Alpha or because he himself missed Derek.

Despite it all Derek gave him a small smile, kissing his temple and whispering a “thank you” so softly that Stiles didn’t think that Scott or Isaac could hear it.

Even though they probably could.

“It’s still not a good idea for a newly mated couple to be apart so much,” his dad said. “I’m just concerned.”

“I know, Dad,” Stiles said. “But it’s okay. Derek and I are good.”

And that was a huge lie, but he was hoping his delivery was convincing. They weren’t good; they were okay or decent, but not good. Derek picked up on the lie, either from his heartbeat or their bond or just because Derek knew it was bullshit. He stiffened next to Stiles a bit before relaxing, taking Stiles’ hand in his and forcing what had to be a fake smile.

“Very good,” Derek nodded.

After breakfast Stiles went with Isaac to give Scott and Allison the tour. Derek disappeared off to his study with his dad and he didn’t want to think about that too much. They were probably going to talk about him and how he was settling in and his dad would probably lecture Derek about how irresponsible it was to not have knotted him.

And he _really_ didn’t want to think about that.

He just focused on the tour, finding it hilarious to look at Scott’s face every time they entered a new room. Stiles knew that he had more than likely made the same faces when Derek had given him the tour, but that didn’t make it any less fun to watch Scott. Allison always had a look of awe and then intrigue while Isaac just shrugged since he had seen it all before. Scott would gape at everything before asking Isaac questions like how many windows were in the mansion or how many bedrooms or if the tapestry gallery was really necessary.

Eventually, they ended up in Scott and Allison’s guestroom on the third floor where they both gave Stiles his birthday presents.

“It’s not much,” Allison said, sitting next to Stiles on the couch in the small sitting area. “But I figured you’d need it if you got homesick.”

Homesick. Yeah, that’d definitely been happening a lot and it would probably continue to happen. He just hoped that it wouldn’t last forever.

Stiles took the gift bag from Allison, grabbing fistfuls of brightly colored tissue paper before finally reaching into the bag and taking out the present. It was a photo album and he pressed his lips together, suppressing a smile.

He flipped through it, wanting to save looking through it for later, noticing that it was in chronological order from his parents’ wedding to his mom pregnant with him to him as a baby to his first Omega ceremony to meeting Scott to meeting Allison to his first day of public school to well, everything. It was all there, good memories and bad, and he stopped on the last picture he and his mom had taken together. She was in her hospital bed and he was curled up next to her, sound asleep as she watched him.

“Stiles,” Allison said, her voice filled with concern. “I’m sorry, I probably shouldn’t have put so many pictures of when she was sick.”

“No, no it’s great,” he insisted, feeling like a child as he rubbed his eyes with his sleeve. “This is amazing, Allison, thank you so much.”

“Of course,” she said, giving him a brief hug.

Scott was sitting in an armchair while Isaac was hovering off to the side of the room, probably not wanting to interrupt the moment.

“I should have gone first with my present,” Scott said, handing Stiles a wrapped box with a huge bow on top.

“Don’t be like that,” Stiles said, grabbing the present and unwrapping it. “I’m sure your present is just as thoughtful.”

Allison giggled next to him, but he ignored her, ripping the tape off of the bow and peering in. And then promptly dropping the box on the floor, his face heating up.

“Seriously, Scott?” he asked.

“Hey, you said that Derek wasn’t giving you any.”

“What’s in the box?” Isaac asked, stepping forward.

Stiles grabbed it from the floor and shoved it into Isaac’s hands before groaning in mortification. “You’re the worst, Scott.”

“It’s a joke gift,” Allison said. “Scott helped with the photo album, we just thought it would be funnier if you thought that we got you separate gifts.”

“Nothing about that is funny,” Stiles said, pointing to Isaac who was holding the dildo with a look of fascination and slight horror.

“C’mon, it’s a knotting one and everything,” Scott informed.

“I fucking hate you.”

“No you don’t.”

“Yes I do.”

“You’re the one who said your heat was miserable,” Scott pointed out. “If Derek leaves you alone next year then you might as well have a buddy.”

“I don’t know why you’re my best friend.”

Isaac dropped the box back onto his lap and he glared into it, feeling his face heat up again as he looked at the dildo. It wasn’t like he hadn’t thought about it before. When he was still living with his dad he always wanted to order one, but his Internet usage had been so heavily monitored that there would be no way. After mating with Derek he had continued to think about it but Derek was a werewolf and his room was so close, there was no way he wouldn’t know exactly what was happening.

Of course Derek usually wasn’t around a lot during the day.

“Why is it so big?” he finally said.

“Well, Alphas are supposed to be big, right?” Scott said. “I didn’t want to get the biggest one though since I didn’t want you to be disappointed if Derek was smaller.”

“Oh shut up,” Stiles said, throwing a throw pillow at him.

Scott dodged it, still laughing at him like Stiles’ embarrassment was the most hilarious thing in the world. Some more teasing occurred, but it eventually died down. Stiles went to put his presents in his room (the photo album in a place of honor on his desk and the dildo shoved in the bottom of his sock drawer in his closet).

Derek and his dad were still off somewhere talking or whatever, so they all ate lunch together before heading to the bowling alley to play a few games. Scott was awful, Stiles and Isaac were decent, and Allison kicked all of their asses by getting strikes every time. It was a good birthday and he wasn’t bothered that he hadn’t left the estate all day.

He had gone into town a few times with Isaac (and once with Boyd) over the week he had been there, but it was a small town with not a lot to do. The region itself was apparently pretty big though with more than a million people living in it and expanding every day. Derek had told him that he could leave all of that up to him, but Stiles kind of wanted to help out. Maybe he could influence the politics a bit, make things easier for Omegas, even if he was just starting out in a small region.

“Boyd and I got you a present too,” Isaac said, leaning against the doorframe of Stiles’ room.

They had all just finished eating dinner (and cake which had been red velvet and delicious) and everyone had gone off to do their own thing. Scott and Allison were in their room doing something that Stiles didn’t want to think about. His dad was in the library. Isaac was about to head home and Derek was waiting for Stiles outside to give him his present. He had been changing into something more comfortable when Isaac showed up, holding something behind his back.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Stiles said, shrugging out of his blazer and grabbing a hoodie instead.

“Well, it was my idea and Boyd was the one who got it,” Isaac shrugged. “You can think of it as a thank you instead of a birthday present if you want.”

“A thank you for what?”

“For brightening this place up a bit,” Isaac shrugged.

He withdrew his hands from behind his back, holding out a small potted plant to Stiles. It made sense with Boyd being a botanist, but he couldn’t fit it in with Isaac.

“Thanks,” he said, taking it from him.

“I thought it’d be nice to take care of something,” Isaac said. “I have a lot in the windows of my loft in town. It’s really calming and if you hate it I can take it from you and take care of it. I just… I just know what you’re going through in a way.”

Stiles looked up at him at that, his eyebrows rising considerably. It all clicked into place then, why he felt so close to Isaac and why he felt so much companionship for him.

“You’re an Omega,” he said.

“Yeah,” Isaac confirmed, nodding. “Well, the government sees me as a Beta, but I’m an Omega. A defect one.”

“What does that even mean?” Stiles asked. “I mean, how can you be a defect, you’re not—”

“You should go meet Derek, he’s waiting for you,” Isaac said. “And I appreciate it if you don’t bug me about this. It’s kind of personal and I don’t really—”

“No, no man, I totally get it,” Stiles assured. “It’s your business, not mine. Sorry for prying. And thank you for the plant. I don’t really know how to take care of it, but they made Google for a reason, right?”

Isaac smiled lightly, nodding his head. “Yeah, they did.”

The older boy left then, leaving Stiles in his room with the plant in his hands. He didn’t even know what it was, but it was a nice gesture. And Isaac was right, taking care of something would probably be nice. He was an Omega and even though he didn’t want to think about having children any time soon, his Omega had been bursting with excitement all day at being able to conceive in just two short years.

A plant would have to do instead of children in the meantime though.

He left the plant on his windowsill, determined to learn more in the morning, before slipping on his sneakers and heading out of his room.

Derek was standing in front of the house, looking at the fountain in the middle of the front lawn that was lit up and still streaming water. Stiles walked up beside him, opening his arms up expectantly.

“So, present?”

“Is that really all you can think about?” Derek asked, chuckling.

“Maybe,” Stiles shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about what you could possibly have gotten me all day.”

“Any guesses?” Derek questioned, taking Stiles’ hand in his before leading him toward the gardens.

“Well at first I thought it was going to be a car, but my dad kind of squashed that idea,” Stiles said. “And then I thought about you giving me the library like in _Beauty and the Beast_ , but that just seemed cliché. Besides, I spend a ton of time there anyway. After that I thought you would announce that you were going to just build another wing in my honor or add a new garden in or something.”

“Those are all grand gestures,” Derek said. “I was going for something a bit more intimate.”

Stiles felt like his heart had stopped beating at that and Derek just chuckled (because he was an asshole) before shaking his head. “Not like that. Just peaceful and quiet. Just us.”

“Oh, okay,” Stiles nodded. “Good.”

It wasn’t like he didn’t want to have sex with Derek. And sure they wouldn’t be able to go all the way, but that didn’t mean orgasms couldn’t be involved. But it just felt wrong. All his life he had been told that only one person was going to be allowed to pleasure him and having that happen with Derek when he barely knew him felt off. It also felt like not having sex during his heat would have been pointless.

They walked for what felt like forever and Stiles was grateful that it was cool so that he wouldn’t be sweating like crazy. His hand was sweating in Derek’s grasp but he blamed werewolves and their high body temperatures. Derek didn’t seem to mind though, carrying on with their easy conversation while leading Stiles through the gardens.

Eventually they reached a lake that Stiles didn’t even know existed. There was a bridge passing over part of it and Derek led him to the edge of it before Stiles stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Derek asked, stepping onto the bridge and looking at Stiles.

“I don’t think that bridge can handle our combined weight.”

“Stiles, it’s steady, don’t worry.”

“How can you be sure?”

“It was made to hold up at least 20 people, two isn’t going to make it collapse.”

Stiles was still a little skeptical, but he stepped forward anyway. It creaked slightly as they walked toward the middle where there was a blanket laid out and a bottle of wine with two glasses.

“Oh this is so corny,” Stiles groaned, sitting down next to Derek despite everything.

“I thought you’d appreciate it,” Derek said. “We met sitting on a balcony and talking for hours while drinking wine. It’s ironic.”

“You’re ironic.”

“Very funny.”

“Shut up,” Stiles said. “And how is a bridge a stand in for a balcony?”

“I didn’t want us to go to a balcony at the house, anyone could have interrupted.”

“That’s true,” Stiles nodded, taking a glass of wine from Derek when he offered it. “Is this from the winery here?”

“Yeah,” Derek said. “Have you been there yet?”

“Not yet.”

“I’ll take you.”

Stiles choked on his wine and Derek just laughed like the stupid charming dickwad that he was.

“Not like that.”

“I know, but you said it all suggestively,” Stiles said, still coughing slightly. “Winery, yes. I would like you to ta—escort me there. Let’s change the subject.”

“Your father and I talked a lot today.”

“Really? That’s the subject you choose to go straight to after that?”

“I thought you’d want to know what we discussed all day.”

“I do,” Stiles said. “I just—I don’t know. Tell me.”

Derek didn’t immediately say anything, probably trying to figure out how to tell Stiles about an hours long conversation without dragging it out forever. Stiles was as patient as he could be, taking small sips of his wine and looking around the lake and the surrounding woods. It was peaceful and beautiful and kind of reminiscent to the preserve back in Beacon Hills. This was nicer though, more picturesque and it was older, had a history to it that Stiles wanted to unearth.

“He said that if you wanted to leave, if you wanted to do the festival again then I should let you,” Derek said. “I know our mating isn’t exactly by the book, but as long as we complete it during one of your future heats, then we shouldn’t have any problems. If you’re regretting this though, you can leave, I won’t stop you.”

“I don’t want to leave,” Stile admitted. “I want to make this work.”

Derek’s shoulders sagged in what had to be relief before he continued. “He also wanted me to ask you if you have any intentions of helping me lead the region when you’re older. You’re too young now, but after your 18th birthday, if you want—”

“I’ll think about it,” Stiles interjected. “I still don’t know if I would want all of that responsibility. I also don’t want to leave it all up to you either, especially since it’s expanding.”

“Don’t feel obligated to do something just because you think I need help.”

“I know, I still want to think about it though,” Stiles said. “I’m still thinking about college too. So maybe I won’t help you lead when I turn 18, but maybe after college. I don’t know. it’s still a long ways away.”

“I shouldn’t have brought it up,” Derek said. “Sorry, this was too much to spring on you.”

“No, it’s cool,” Stiles shrugged. “It was going to be brought up someday. You guys talk about anything else?”

“Nothing other than some well-veiled threats from your father.”

Stiles laughed, shaking his head. “Yeah, that sounds like him.”

The silence that stretched after that was actually kind of nice and Stiles felt closer to Derek than he had since he first met him. When they were alone like this it was so easy to like Derek, to fall for Derek and to look past that he was a complete mystery. Back at the estate it felt like he was living with a stranger, but when it was just the two of them it felt like he had known Derek all his life.

“My family used to come out here a lot,” Derek said. “During the summer when none of us were in school we’d just come out here to swim despite there being a pool at the estate. It’s probably because we were wolves. During full moons we would always run together out here. I haven’t been back here since the fire.”

Stiles didn’t know what that meant. He didn’t know why Derek was sharing all of these details with him or why after all these years he was coming back to this place with Stiles. Derek was looking at him so intently and calmly though that Stiles knew he shouldn’t ask any of those questions. This was important to Derek, this was him opening up, and Stiles didn’t want to ruin that.

“Thank you,” Stiles finally said because there wasn’t really anything else to say.

Derek smiled (and it felt real even though Stiles really just didn’t know), placing a hand on Stiles’ cheek and drawing him closer. “I didn’t get you a present.”

“I figured.”

“I didn’t know what to get you,” Derek admitted. “I mean, now that you have access to my accounts, there’s nothing I could buy for you. And I couldn’t get you anything personal since we don’t really know each other.”

“Funny, didn’t I say something like that before?”

“That’s where I got it from.”

Stiles couldn’t help but grin and lean into the hand on his cheek. This felt like they were on that balcony again, this felt real and easy and he hoped this was some kind of turning point. He hoped that from then on they would be open with each other and get to know each other.

Because Stiles really wanted to fall in love with Derek and he definitely could, he was just waiting for Derek to give him a chance.

It was starting to get darker outside and Stiles was a bit worried about getting back in the dark when Derek pressed him against the blanket, kissing his thoughts right out of him. The kiss was like most of their kisses at first, soft and slow and smooth and simple, but quickly turned into something more heated. Derek slipped a hand under Stiles’ shirt and his tongue into his mouth, pressing their bodies together in a way that made his pulse race.

Stiles was feeling a little whorish a few minutes in, gripping at Derek’s hair and spreading his legs and making the embarrassing noises he always suppressed when he masturbated. But Derek was hot and heavy against him and the control Derek was exhibiting was…arousing. And, fuck, it was hot. Derek was kind of insane in his way of making Stiles feel like mush under his hands.

“I wanted to leave a mark,” Derek said, kissing down his neck.

“What?” Stiles asked, his mind slowly coming out of its haze. “When?”

“When I asked if I could have your first kiss on the balcony,” Derek shared. “I wanted to mark you so that even if you picked Richardson he would know that he wasn’t the first.”

Part of him felt a little angry at Derek for wanting to showcase a mark on him, but that was overshadowed by how much he wanted for Derek to have left a mark on him. Alpha Richardson would have seen it while they had been dancing and he would have known that Stiles was already Derek’s.

And that should not be as hot as it was.

“I wouldn’t have picked Alpha Richardson,” Stiles said. “Did you think I was going to pick him?”

“Yes,” Derek said. “Why wouldn’t you?”

“Because you called me Stiles,” he said. “He wouldn’t call me Stiles, he kept saying Genim. You listened to me.”

“Of course I listened to you,” Derek said as if it were obvious. “You’re my mate.”

“I wasn't then.”

Something passed over Derek’s face then. It was like he had said something that he wasn’t supposed to share, like he had just said some huge secret.

And Stiles would have been determined to get an answer out of him if it wasn’t for Derek kissing him again, making him feel like his legs were made of jelly and his insides were just turning into warm mush.

“Happy birthday,” Derek said after they had parted and Stiles knew he would have to either take a cold shower after going back to the house or to try out one of his birthday presents.

“Thanks,” Stiles said. “It’s been a good one.”

And it kind of had been.

**OoOoOoO**

The plant Isaac and Boyd had given him was a Bleeding Heart. It hadn’t started to bloom, but after bugging Boyd for a few days he managed to get the name of the plant out of him. He had searched for a few images of it online and it was simple, but beautiful and he was kind of excited to see it bloom.

And then he felt pathetic for thinking that a plant blooming was the most excitement he was looking forward to.

After his birthday and after his dad, Scott, and Allison had returned to Beacon Hills, things between him and Derek had gotten better. The Alpha was still constantly busy, but he always made sure to clear out his evenings for Stiles. They would take walks in the gardens or go see whatever new movie was out in the movie theater in town. Derek had yet to show him the winery and after waiting for weeks he decided to drag Boyd along with him while Derek was working.

His relationship with Isaac had improved vastly over the weeks since Stiles had found out about his Omega status, but Boyd was still pretty reluctant about becoming Stiles’ friend. Pestering him went a long way though and it was a warm May afternoon when they were walking to the winery on the outskirts of the estate.

“I don’t know why you couldn’t just wait for Derek,” Boyd said as they walked. “Or Isaac.”

“Derek gave Isaac the day off.”

“Ah.”

“That’s it?”

“What?”

“‘Ah’?”

“Well, yeah,” Boyd shrugged. “He always gets the first of the month off.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s when his mate is in town,” the Beta said. “They barely get to see each other.”

“Right,” Stiles nodded, remembering that the last time Isaac had mentioned seeing his mate had been in early April during his heat. “So, who is his mate?”

“I’m not telling you,” Boyd said. “That’s up to Isaac. He already told you he was an Omega, don’t push him.”

“I’m not pushing him, I’m pushing you.”

Boyd stopped at that, standing in front of Stiles and folding his arms across his broad chest. “Okay, go ahead and push, little guy.”

“I’m not little.”

“You’re a good half foot shorter than me and skinny,” Boyd said. “Besides, I’m a werewolf.”

“Wow, congratulations you prized lycanthrope you.”

That got an eye roll and Stiles considered that as win as he did whenever he got any kind of emotion from Boyd. They continued their walk to the winery, Boyd opening the door for him when they arrived. “Your highness.”

“Oh shut up, you asshole.”

“I thought you were happy that I started talking to you,” Boyd said.

“Well not when you’re being a sarcastic jerk.”

“That’s all you ever are to me.”

One thing that he really liked about Boyd was that he never put up with Stiles’ crap and handed it right back to him. Even Scott didn’t do that and it was nice to have someone not be afraid of insulting his “delicate” feelings. He smirked up at him and Boyd smirked back before they walked into the main lobby where a beautiful blonde was sitting at a receptionist desk.

“Hey there,” Boyd said, smiling at her and leaning across the desk.

The girl looked up, lighting up into a smile before leaning across the desk and planting a kiss on Boyd’s mouth. It all clicked into place then, this must be Erica, Boyd’s mate. And it wasn’t even the description from Isaac of a beautiful blonde Beta, but of how Boyd acted that gave it away. He was calm and happy and tender in a way that Stiles didn’t even know was possible for Boyd.

“I’ve missed you.”

“Vernon, I just saw you this morning.”

“Doesn’t mean I missed you any less.”

“ _Vernon_?” Stiles repeated. “Your name is Vernon?”

“Vernon Milton Boyd IV,” Boyd shrugged.

“Well that’s specific.”

“I like it,” Erica shrugged, smoothing a hand over his chest. “These grass stains, on the other hand.”

“Part of the job,” Boyd said, grinning down at her.

“I know,” she said, returning the smile before looking at Stiles. “You must be Stiles. Vernon has told me so much about you.”

“I’m not thinking good things,” Stiles said.

Erica laughed and Boyd rolled his eyes as his mate made her way around the desk, approaching Stiles.

“Some good, some bad,” she said, outstretching a hand for him to shake. “I’m Erica Reyes, well technically Erica Boyd, but I like my last name too much to give it up.”

“I get that,” Stiles said, shaking her hand.

After his heat he had had to sign tons of papers saying that he was officially taking the Hale name. The officiator from the local government office had been in tears she had been so happy to see that Derek had taken a mate, going on and on about how “Genim Hale” had such a nice ring to it. “Stiles Stilinski” had a better ring in his opinion, but he had kept that to himself.

“So, I’m assuming you’re here for the winery tour?” she asked. “Even though Derek told me that he was planning on taking you this Saturday.”

“I can act surprised on Saturday.”

“Just don’t overdo it,” Erica said, winking at him before gesturing toward a hallway. “Well, shall we?”

The tour of the winery was extensive and intimidating and really cold since the AC was cranked. Erica was extremely charming though and ridiculously good at giving the tour, giving tidbits of history and talking about the building itself, even including facts about the estate. Boyd was pretty casual about everything, but Stiles had never seen him more content than at Erica’s side. It reminded him of Scott and Allison, in a much more toned down way though. They touched each other, but it was always subtle: just hand brushes or hands touching shoulders or no touching at all, just small secret smiles.

Even though the tour was for his benefit, he felt like an outsider, a third wheel in a way that Scott and Allison never made him feel. It was strangely nice though. It was nice to see a mated couple so in love and so calm and content around each other. And of course they were, they were Betas, they had chosen each other. He had only ever seen two happy Alpha/Omega couples and that had been his parents (who had gotten lucky) and Jackson and Lydia (who had disregarded the entire festival since Jackson had gotten his first heat too early and Lydia had taken care of him for it, only to have gotten caught).

He didn’t know if he and Derek could be like that. He wanted to be like that, he wanted to be happy and in love. But whenever he thought about happiness and love it was always difficult to work Derek into the picture.

“Stiles?” Erica said, her voice bringing him back to the present along with Boyd waving a hand in front of his face.

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“I was about to propose we go do some tastings, but if you’re not interested then you can leave, no hard feelings,” Erica said.

“No, no, my mind was just… elsewhere,” Stiles said, shaking his head. “Tastings? Sounds awesome, let’s do it.”

“All right then, follow me,” she said, walking into a large room with different tables and a wine rack across the entire wall. “We use this room for investors, traders, and winemakers; potential clients basically. Our vineyard is one of the largest in the country and rich people from all over the world come to drink wine and invest in profits and have business meetings with Derek. We have official tastings once every two months, usually around the balls.”

Stiles was then trying to process this when Erica went across the room, taking as many bottles of wine as she could carry. This turned out to be more than ten since werewolf grace and strength went a long way, Boyd helped her out though and she rolled her eyes, quietly telling him that she wasn’t some kind of delicate flower. Boyd responded by rolling his eyes and saying that he knew, he just wanted to help out.

And he would have felt like he was interrupting something if his mind wasn’t filled with what Erica had said. He knew that investors and traders came into the winery and did business with Derek, but no one ever told him about any balls.

“So, uh, balls?” he asked, taking a seat at a table and trying to sound casual.

“Yeah, they’re thrown every two months,” Erica shrugged. “The May ball is always the most popular since it’s where all of the newly mated Alpha and Omegas come to show off. It’s always held at the estate.”

“I didn’t know Derek let people visit the estate.”

“Only once a year,” Erica said. “The others take place in town at the main hall. Derek never goes to those, he just lets them into the winery for the tastings. And Derek didn’t tell you any of this, did he?”

“Can’t say that he did.”

Erica looked annoyed as she uncorked a bottle of red wine, pouring small amounts into three glasses. She looked expectantly at Boyd who just shrugged. “It’s not my fault that Derek’s so busy he can’t inform his mate about stuff like this.”

“It’s happening next Saturday,” she said. “What is he waiting for? Friday night?”

“Of course not.”

Over the past month Stiles had found out that Derek was really good at sneaking up on people. Even werewolves.

Erica jumped in surprise, dropping a glass only to have Boyd (who was significantly less affected) catch it before it shattered on the floor. Stiles turned around in his chair after almost falling to the floor in surprise. Derek was leaning against the doorframe with a small grin on his face, looking at Boyd and Erica before resting his eyes on Stiles.

“I was going to tell you at dinner tonight.”

“Bullshit,” he countered, hearing Erica giggle and feeling rather than hearing Boyd roll his eyes.

“I was,” Derek sighed, taking a seat next to him before looking at Erica and Boyd. “Some privacy?”

Stiles was focusing on Derek, so he didn’t see Boyd and Erica leave, but he heard them walking out of the room, the heavy door closing behind them. Derek took his hand in his, stroking his thumb across Stiles’ skin and he tried not to sink into it too much, but his heart didn’t get the memo, fluttering at the simple touch.

“A ball?” Stiles asked. “You couldn’t have told me?”

“I didn’t want you to freak out.”

“Why would I freak out?” Stiles questioned. “Seriously, I’ve been trained since birth on how to act at these things. I’m not freaked out by it, I’m fine with it. I can act like the perfect Omega mate you need me to be.”

“But that’s not you,” Derek pressed.

“I don’t think a lot of people are going to get what we have, Derek,” Stiles said. “All of them are going to be expecting two people who have been having a ton of sex since my heat, not… two friends who kiss a lot.”

“Is that what you think you are to me?” Derek asked. “Just my friend?”

“That’s what it feels like,” Stiles shrugged.

“You’re not.”

Oh. Well that… hurt. A lot. Maybe he should have said acquaintances. Or two guys with an awkward living situation. Was it too early to call Derek his friend? He didn’t have a lot of friends, so his mind was a little hazy on the protocol.

“Not that, Stiles,” Derek said forcefully, squeezing Stiles’ hand. “I don’t treat my friends like I treat you.”

“You have friends?”

And okay maybe he could have asked that a bit nicer.

Derek laughed though, shaking his head. “Isaac and I are closer than employer and employee and Boyd and I have known each other for years. I’m capable of having friends, believe it or not.”

“I know, I know,” Stiles said. “But what am I to you? We’re not really… lovers.”

He felt so dumb saying it, his face heating up and a weird feeling taking over his stomach. He wasn’t Derek’s lover; they hadn’t even seen each other naked. It had been a week since he had seen Derek without his shirt and that was because he had dragged Derek to the indoor swimming pool one evening and had almost tripped into the pool when Derek had stripped in front of him.

Not his finest hour.

“You’re my mate,” Derek said simply, placing a hand on Stiles’ cheek.

“Technically, yeah,” Stiles said with a roll of his eyes.

“No, you just are, Stiles,” he insisted. “Sex doesn’t make two people mates, a connection does. _This_ does.”

His hand was on the crook of Stiles’ neck, thumb stroking over the scar left from his mating bite. Stiles had a habit of staring at it when he looked in a mirror or spending extra time washing it in the shower or clasping a hand over it while he jerked off when Derek wasn’t home yet, his fingers always buried inside himself as he thought about how Derek would be in bed with him.

“The bond we have makes us mates,” Derek continued. “I know you feel my sadness and my anger, when I’m lying to you. Knotting and sex doesn’t make us mates. Your heat prepares your body in advance for when you can have children. Before the government got involved hundreds of years ago, Omegas went through heats by themselves for years.”

“Let me guess, you were a history major,” Stiles said, placing a hand over the one Derek had on his neck.

“Yeah, I thought since I was in going to inherit the region that I should be prepared to know what’s worked and failed before.”

“That’s smart, I like that.”

Derek grinned and for a rare moment Stiles actually thought that it looked genuine. It wasn’t forced or super charming or anything that just didn’t fit with Derek. It was simple and small and Stiles opened up their bond a little bit, feeling Derek’s fondness flow through him.

Stiles couldn’t help but to grin back, tightening his hold on Derek’s hand. “So, next Saturday? A ball?”

“Yeah,” Derek sighed. “They’re not exactly my favorite things.”

“Me neither,” Stiles said, nodding. “I can remember my first one. I was eight and I tripped down the stairs when they first announced me.”

“I remember that.”

He tilted his head back in confusion at that, raising his eyebrows. “How exactly?”

“I was there,” Derek shrugged. “I was 14 and required to go to all of the first Omega ceremonies in our area. I remember being really bored and just sitting around and then there was this huge crash.”

“Okay it wasn’t _huge_.”

“And then I looked to the front entrance and at the bottom of the stairs was this little Omega surrounded by adults acting like a twisted ankle was the worst thing to ever happen to someone.”

“I was in the hospital for weeks even though it wasn’t even sprained,” Stiles said, rolling his eyes at the memory. “I can’t believe you were there and that you actually remember that. They gave me some kind of herbal sedative after I fell and apparently some teenage boy came with me and my parents to the hospital.”

Realization dawned on him at Derek’s small silence and what he had just said. Derek placed a hand on his cheek, smiling softly at him as he leaned forward. “I was so relieved when you were okay.”

“That was you?” Stiles asked. “But why? Why would your risk being close to an unmated Omega? You were an unmated Alpha, you could have gotten in trouble.”

“My parents yelled at me when they picked me up from the hospital,” Derek shrugged. “It was worth it.”

“But why would you care?”

Derek sighed, annoyance coming over his face. “Does it matter? I wanted to help you, is that such a bad thing?”

“No, but I mean, I had my parents and my mentor and a ton of other adults worrying about me,” Stiles shrugged. “Why would you do it? None of the other unmated Alphas there cared.”

It seriously didn’t make any sense. Unmated Alphas didn’t care about Omegas until they had reached double digits at the earliest. Stiles had been eight, at his first ceremony, and a clumsy little Omega with shaggy hair and two missing front teeth. Out of all the Omegas at the ceremony he had been the least desirable and Derek had rushed to his aide like he had been worth something.

“Stiles, you… you were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen,” Derek said, moving closer. “And you still are.”

His mouth fell open and apparently Derek took this as an invitation to kiss him, capturing his mouth with his while Stiles was trying to process through everything. He didn’t get it. It didn’t make any sense. He hadn’t been beautiful and he wasn’t beautiful now and did his dad know that Derek had been the one to help him all those years ago?

And he wanted to kiss Derek back because kissing Derek back was one of his favorite things, but his mind was still caught up with a thousand thoughts and how Derek had called him beautiful and how it had sounded so nice and honest instead of how Richardson had said it with this shitty seductiveness.

Then Derek was pulling him into his lap and everything just stopped after that.

He placed his hands on Derek’s shoulders, pushing away slightly before standing up and shaking his head. “I can’t… I can’t do this. I’m sorry.”

Without another word he bolted out of the room, using his memory from Erica’s tour to figure out how to get out of the winery and back onto the grounds.

**OoOoOoO**

He didn’t talk to Derek much after the winery fiasco and Derek hadn’t tried to talk to him. After arriving back at the house he had gone to his room, grabbing the photo album from Scott and Allison and flipping to his first Omega ceremony. It had been taken right before he had started to descend the stairs, before tripping on the fifth one and falling to the bottom. He had remembered crying and pushing people away saying that he didn’t need help, that he was just fine. After that an Omega nurse (because they were so different and fragile that separate nurses were necessary or something) had made him drink some herbal liquid before he had passed out.

Nothing about the memory made him think about Derek or teenage Derek who had apparently carried him to his parents’ car before driving to the hospital. His mom had told him when he had woken up that he was lucky to have caught the eye of an unmated Alpha already and he just didn’t get it. He _still_ didn’t get it. Had Derek picked him out all those years ago? Had he tried to seduce Stiles on that balcony back in March, tried to encourage him to pick him?

His earlier fears of Derek taking over his life completely when they finished the mating came back to him, but he pushed them away. He wasn’t doing the festival over again because of the humiliation that would cause, the humiliation of choosing every single Alpha and being denied every time because no one wanted used goods. Talking to Derek about everything was what he probably should have done, but Derek had been avoiding him the past week and he himself was a bit too scared to ask him about it.

Of course when the ball came around he had no choice but to act like a crazy in love Omega, especially since his old team was back to torment him.

After eating breakfast with Isaac and Boyd, Stiles had headed up to his room (Isaac had wished him good luck and Boyd had hid a snicker behind his phone as he texted Erica) to find five very familiar faces poking around in his stuff.

“What the fuck,” he said, not asked, once he had opened his door.

Marianne had shrieked, holding a hand to her heart and for a second Stiles thought it was because of his choice of words. “He’s all hairy again. Someone take his clothes off, I need to get my waxing kit ready.”

“Seriously?” he groaned, closing the door behind him before looking at Ms. Morrell. “Is this really necessary?”

“Well it is your first official ball as a mated couple,” she shrugged. “Well, half-mated couple.”

“You poor thing,” Mora said, walking toward him with sympathy in her eyes before yanking his t-shirt off his head. “He didn’t knot you like you needed, did he?”

“He won’t even share a room with you,” Marco added.

“I knew you should have chosen Alpha Richardson,” Malcolm, the little shit, said in a singsong tone, looking a little too smug for Stiles’ liking. “Alpha Richardson would have taken such good care of you during your heat.”

 _Yeah and then lock me up for the rest of my life_.

Stiles didn’t argue though, choosing to ignore them (well it was hard to ignore Mora as she tugged his clothes off) and turned to Ms. Morrell.

“Seriously?” he repeated.

She rolled her eyes, standing up with a robe in her hands and walking toward him, offering him the robe. He was about to ask why he would need it when he heard Mora cut through his boxers with a pair of scissors, the material falling off of him and into a pile on the floor. Stiles grabbed the robe without question after that, slipping it on and not even able to tie it around his waist before Marianne forced it open.

“Oh God, look at your pubic hairs,” she whimpered in suppressed horror. “This is going to take _hours_.”

“Luckily we have hours,” Ms. Morrell said. “Schedule, Malcolm?”

“Nope,” Stiles said, grabbing the ties of his robe and pulling it around himself. He marched over to Malcolm, grabbing the stupid clipboard from his stupid little hands before addressing the group. “No.”

“Stiles, we’re not dogs,” Ms. Morrell said with a roll of her eyes.

“I never said that you were,” he groaned, running his hands through his hair. “I can get ready for this ball by myself and I can deal with my mating by myself and I can take care of my- _Jesus,_ Marco do you have to stab the moles on my neck?!”

“Just making sure they’re still not cancerous,” the older man shrugged before giving him a thumbs up. “Nothing to worry about, Omega Hale.”

“Thanks,” he said, rubbing his neck and not looking into how being called Omega Hale made him feel.

He sat down on the edge of his bed, unhappy to see that none of them had listened to him and were now buzzing around the room. The ball didn’t even start for ten hours and they were already talking about all of the torture they were going to put him through. Then he felt his stomach drop at the thought that all of them knew that his mating was incomplete.

“Uh, so you guys aren’t going to tell anyone about Derek and I not completing the mating, right?” he asked awkwardly. “We’re just, y’know, taking it slow and—”

“Stiles, I’d never get a job again if someone knew that an Omega under my care didn’t complete his mating on time,” Ms. Morrell said. “The same goes for all of us. We won’t tell anyone.”

It made sense and only a little part of him was upset that they didn’t care that it would be his future on the line if they told someone about it. But he didn’t really think too much when it came to this group.

“So, are you going to cooperate?” Ms. Morrell asked. “Or are you going to start throwing a tantrum like the unmated Omega you are?”

She raised an eyebrow at that and he swallowed his pride. He nodded, handing Malcolm’s clipboard back to him. “Do your worst.”

Marianne practically launched herself at him after he had spoken, grabbing his robe and pushing it off of his shoulders before looking over every single inch of him. Marco was sitting in the small sitting area of his room, mixing different pastes and lotions together with a ridiculously intense look on his face. Marianne was sorting through fifty different ties she had taken from the side of the closet he never touched. Ms. Morrell was sitting at his desk, tapping away on her Blackberry while Malcolm paced the room, glaring at his clipboard.

It felt like it was the festival all over again. Except now the pressure seemed even heavier. He and Derek hadn’t talked, _really_ talked, in so long and he didn’t know how they were going to pull it off. All the newly mated couples would probably be all over each other and he and Derek would be ridiculously distant.

And they were the ones hosting it.

He couldn’t dwell on all of this for too long though because Marianne was dragging him along with a giant bag filled with her supplies into the bathroom. It was just as painful as the first time and after being shoved into the shower to rinse off, he walked back into his room, feeling like his skin was on fire, to see Isaac amongst the craziness.

“Here to watch the torture happen?” Stiles asked, keeping his towel firmly around his waist much to Marco’s protest who was now spreading goo onto his back.

“I am a little intrigued,” Isaac shrugged. “I never went through all of this.”

Everyone else probably took it as Isaac being a Beta and not required to go to balls and ceremonies. Only Stiles understood it for what it really was. Isaac was an Omega and he had never had this experience before. Stiles didn’t think he was missing much, but Isaac wasn’t him and maybe he really wanted something like this.

“The plant looks good,” Isaac said, gesturing toward the Bleeding Heart on his windowsill. “It’s close to blooming.”

“Yeah,” Stiles nodded. “According to Google I’m doing a great job of taking care of it.”

“It is pretty healthy,” Isaac nodded. “Even though I think Boyd is better qualified to tell you that.”

“Probably,” Stiles said. “So, you looking forward to the— _Holy God_ , Marco, what are you _doing_?”

“Your shoulders are tense,” Marco said, continuing to pour hot oil onto his back. “This is relaxing.”

“No it’s not, it burns.”

“You’re overreacting.”

“I have very sensitive skin.”

“I can tell, you’re starting to peel.”

He couldn’t even continue talking to Isaac because Marco was carting him off to the bathroom again to rinse off.

Apparently all the extra time they had to prepare was for trial and error more than anything. Ms. Morrell explained (well, reminded him since he had read it all in a textbook before) that he would only be seeing the team once more at his 18th birthday for his final Omega ceremony. Even though it was two years away he was dreading it, not wanting to be the guest of honor for five hours of talking about how Stiles was such a gift to be able to conceive.

After that final ceremony the team would help different Omegas while Ms. Morrell would find another five year-old Omega to mentor. He wanted to say that it would be a happy departure, but part of it was all just bittersweet. Being plucked and waxed and tweezed and treated like a doll wasn’t his favorite thing, but he knew that they all had the best intentions at heart, all of them just wanting to help.

So now that it was one of the last times they would all be together, they were experimenting, using the extra time to figure out what worked and what didn’t.

It was almost six o’clock when Mora was lint rolling his suit and Marco was spritzing him with some weird peppermint and lemon spray while Marianne plucked at his eyebrows. Isaac had long left to help Derek get ready (which was funny since Derek probably just showered before changing into a suit), leaving Stiles alone with the group.

“Very nice,” Ms. Morrell said from her spot at his desk, finally looking away from her phone. “Right, Malcolm?”

“It’ll do,” Malcolm said. “He’d look better if he wasn’t an Omega in limbo.”

“Oh, you’re being too critical,” Marianne said, stepping back to examine Stiles’ eyebrows. “He looks great, no one will know.”

“Well, I hope for our sake that they don’t.”

He took what he said about it being bittersweet to say goodbye back. It’d be bittersweet for everyone but Malcolm, because he’d probably be doing cartwheels when he said a final goodbye to him.

“Marianne’s right,” Marco shrugged. “He doesn’t look mate-able, he looks mated. Just how we want.”

“Now we just need to finish off with the tie,” Mora said, grabbing a tie from her pile on the floor and making her way toward him.

She had just placed it around his neck when there was a knock on the door. Stiles couldn’t even get a word out when Ms. Morrell invited whoever was at the door inside.

“Hopefully I’m not interrupting.”

Mora and Marianne erupted into giggles and Marco rolled his eyes while Malcolm looked like he could jump across the room and strangle Derek. Ms. Morrell just grinned, standing up and making her way toward the door.

“We were just finishing up,” she said. “You look very nice, Derek.”

“Very handsome,” Marianne gushed as she shoved random tools into her bag before bustling toward the door. “See you on your 18th, Stiles. Good luck tonight!”

Marco did the same, giving Stiles a small wave and a reminder to get his moles checked regularly. Stiles just stood there, feeling increasingly numb as Malcolm exited the room with a dirty look at Derek and no goodbye to Stiles.

“I’ll see you downstairs,” Ms. Morrell informed, placing a hand on Stiles’ shoulder before leaving with a nod at Derek.

Mora was the last one there and she looked hastily from Stiles to Derek and then to the tie she had been focusing on. Derek walked toward them, placing a hand on the small of Stiles’ back and flashing fake smile #18 at Mora.

“I can take it from here.”

“Are you—Are you sure?” she asked. “It won’t take me long to tie it.”

“Don’t worry,” Derek said. “Have a good night.”

“Oh right, of course,” she said, blushing brightly before heading to her bag and packing quickly before lugging it toward the door. “Bye Stiles. Bye Alpha Hale.”

And then she was gone and Stiles was alone with Derek. This wouldn’t be a bad thing, he used to like being alone with Derek. Now it was stiff and awkward since they hadn’t really talked since the winery incident and well, they hadn’t really left things in the best place then.

“Where’s Isaac?” Stiles asked as Derek took the ends of the tie in his hands before frowning.

“Instructing the extra staff on what to do,” Derek said. “Huh, I haven’t tied a bowtie in forever.”

“Bowtie?” Stiles asked before looking down at his neck and yeah, that was a bowtie.

Derek of course had an especially nice necktie on and his beard was looking more trimmed than usual, but other than that it looked like he was about to leave for a business meeting. Stiles still wasn’t used to the clothes he was in, feeling out of place in such an expensive suit that he knew he wouldn’t be able to afford if he were still living with his dad.

“We need to talk,” Derek said as he moved the pieces of cloth (had to be silk, no way it couldn’t be) deftly.

“Yeah, like how you’re ridiculously good at tying bowties.”

“Etiquette lessons growing up.”

“Really? Hard to tell sometimes.”

That made Derek pause for a second, but he picked up again soon after. “Stop beating around the bush, Stiles.”

“I don’t think we have anything to talk about.”

“You know that we do.”

“About what?” Stiles asked, irritation flooding through him. “About what happened at the winery? Because that felt like a lot of me asking questions and a lot of you not giving me clear answers.”

“It’s complicated.”

“How is it so complicated?”

“We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Maybe I want to talk now.”

“Stiles,” Derek said firmly after quickly finishing off the tie. “We’re talking tomorrow.”

That was the first time that Derek had ever used the two inches of height he had on Stiles along with the fact that he was a lot broader against him. He made Stiles feel small and scrutinized. He wasn’t afraid though, so he counted that as a good thing.

“Fine,” Stiles shrugged. “But don’t think that I’m going to stop bringing it up just because you’re going all Alpha on me.”

He passed by Derek, leaving the room and knowing that Derek was following him. Stiles made it to the staircase, hearing the bustle of people below him, when Derek came to his side. Since they were hosting the event (which was laughable since neither of them had done any of the actual planning) they would have to make an entrance together. Everyone was expecting them to be sickeningly attached to each other and Stiles couldn’t help but think that they probably would have been if they hadn’t had that talk in the winery.

Malcolm was standing at the top of the staircase, looking at them grumpily. “Ready to go?”

Stiles was about to give the affirmative when Derek held up a hand to Malcolm before pulling Stiles aside. “I just want us to make it through the night.”

“Yeah,” Stiles sighed. “Me too.”

“So, even though I feel like you want to punch me in the face right now—”

“Is it that obvious?”

“—we should show a united front. Act like the best mates we can be to each other.”

“Don’t strain yourself trying.”

Derek let out an unsteady breath as a little wrinkle of frustration crinkled up on his forehead. He reached a hand into his pocket, pulling out Stiles’ white ribbon before gesturing toward his left hand. “May I?”

“Of course,” Stiles said, outstretching his hand.

He watched as Derek tied the ribbon around his hand just as skilled as he had done for the bowtie. Stiles reached into his own pocket afterward, relieved when he felt a ribbon in there thanks to Mora, taking out the red ribbon. He messily tied it around Derek’s hand (on purpose or on accident, even Stiles didn’t know).

Derek took his left hand in his, bringing it up to his mouth to kiss his knuckles. “Be patient with me, okay?”

“Okay,” Stiles said noncommittally.

Part of him felt bad about giving Derek the cold shoulder and the other part felt like he was strangely justified even though he had been the one to leave Derek in the winery. His Alpha had been keeping secrets from him though and Stiles felt like maybe he would get answers out of Derek if he forced them out of him.

Even though there were probably much better ways to do it.

“Ready now?” Malcolm asked as they approached the top of the stairs again, Stiles’ left arm linked with Derek’s right.

“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Derek said and Stiles couldn’t even roll his eyes because everyone downstairs had stopped to look at them.

Malcolm cleared his throat before turning toward the crowd. “The recently mated Alpha Derek James Hale and his mate, Omega Genim Rupert Hale.”

Stiles must have made a face at his new title because Derek chuckled next to him before they started to walk down the steps.

“You can legally change your name if you want,” Derek said, maintaining fake smile #12 as he turned his head slightly to talk to Stiles.

“Probably will because without Stilinski how am I Stiles?”

“You’re always Stiles.”

“Yeah, but not to them,” Stiles said, gesturing with his hand toward the crowd in a way that hopefully didn’t draw too much attention.

“Since when do you care what they think?” Derek asked.

And okay, yeah, he had a point.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and all of the people down there smiled warmly at them, clapping lightly, and giving congratulations for being such a beautiful couple. Stiles was finding it hard not to throw up in his mouth a bit, but Derek did a good job of steering him toward the dining hall while giving short nods to random people.

Dinner was boring and a pain to sit through but he was surviving. He had been trained on proper etiquette since he was five years-old and he knew what spoon went with what dish and where to place his water glass. Derek was sitting at the head of the table and Stiles was sitting to his right, across from the Hales’ biggest business partner.

Alpha Deucalion was blind but still one of the sharpest Alphas Stiles had ever met. He wasn’t nice and he was pretty pompous, but he knew what he was talking about, proposing numerous different business offers to Derek throughout the meal.

“Come on, Derek,” the older Alpha said in a low voice that Stiles could barely hear. “Let’s combine our regions. We’ll double our land and our trade.”

“I’m not interested,” Derek said and by the tight smile on his face Stiles knew that this hadn’t been the first time it had been brought up. “I know things have been working for you with the other Alphas you’ve merged with, but I can’t. One leader in charge is all I need. I don’t need a civil war breaking out. I’m grateful for our treaty and our business, I’m content with it.”

“You’d have so much more though,” Deucalion continued. “So much more to offer for you and your mate and of course your future children.”

Stiles did everything in his power not to choke on the bite of filet mignon he had just shoved into his mouth. He was 16. He wouldn’t be able to pop out kids until he was 18 and even then he wanted to wait a few years.

Derek probably sensed his discomfort, placing a hand over one of his and squeezing lightly. “I have more than enough to offer to my family.”

“All right, all right,” Deucalion said, holding his hands up. “I’ll try again next year.”

“And I’ll continue to turn you down.”

“I hold onto hope, Derek. Now, how is being mated suiting you? It never really appealed to me.”

“It’s amazing,” Derek said simply, stroking the top of Stiles’ hand with his thumb. “I’ve never felt this close to someone.”

The way Derek said it made it seem so genuine and true. Like Derek actually felt that for him.

“And you, Stiles?” Deucalion asked, turning his head to look at him.

(Deucalion had called him Genim when they had been introduced and when Stiles had corrected him he hadn’t even questioned it.)

“Same,” he said, nodding even though the blind Alpha couldn’t see. “I’m really happy here.”

The horrible thing was that he didn’t know if it was a lie or not. It sounded truthful, but Derek’s face was more than enough for him to know that it didn’t feel genuine.

“Lovely,” Deucalion said, smiling at him. “So, Stiles, will you be joining us at the winery tomorrow? It’s always fun even though it’s just a wine tasting veiled as a business meeting. You might learn something.”

“Uh, I don’t know,” Stiles shrugged. “I mean, I’m sure I would learn something, but it’s not really my thing.”

“Oh come on now, you might not feel like you have a thing for business now, but you might be a natural.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Deucalion gave him a large grin before turning to the stuffy investor sitting next to him who was frowning at his mixed vegetables like they had personally offended him. Stiles turned to look at Derek to start some light conversation about the silverware or something when he noticed the look on his face. He looked angry, like it was taking every force in his body not to leap across the table and rip out the throat of who he was looking at.

One turn of Stiles’ head was all it took for him to understand why Derek was looking that way. Toward the end of the table sat Alpha Richardson and Malcolm who were in deep conversation. Richardson locked eyes with Derek and he smirked before settling his eyes on Stiles, his smile making his insides twist.

“Derek,” Stiles said, taking his hand out from under Derek’s and placing his on top instead. “Are you listening to what they’re saying? Can you hear what Malcolm’s telling him?”

“Yeah,” Derek said gruffly. “I’m going to kill him.”

“Which one?”

“Richardson,” Derek said. “I’ll just break the other one’s bones.”

Panic flooded through Stiles and even though he would very much like to see both of them taken down a notch, killing wasn’t really the answer. He clasped another hand on top of Derek’s, squeezing tightly.

“Just stop listening to them.”

“I can’t,” he said. “God, you should hear what they’re saying.”

“For some reason I kind of don’t want to.”

Waiters and waitresses were coming into the hall now, taking peoples’ plates away and replacing them with dessert. Isaac switched out their plates, his smile quickly fading when he looked at Derek.

“What’s going on?” he asked, taking away Stiles’ plate before setting down a plate with the most gorgeous chocolate dessert in the world that he couldn’t even focus on.

“Richardson and Malcolm are saying things and Derek is listening to things and there are some death threats floating around,” Stiles said, keeping his eyes trained on Derek as he talked.

“So you basically have no clue what’s going on?”

“Yeah, that’s basically it,” he nodded.

“Distract Derek.”

And with that final word of advice, Isaac was off, heading back into the kitchen. Stiles was of course just sitting there like an idiot even more confused than before. Derek didn’t even seem to have noticed that Isaac had been there and he was getting angrier by the second. He had to do something, he had to distract Derek and he didn’t know how to do that.

Derek was never distracted, he was always focused and on guard. None of the people in the hall seemed to even notice what was going on and Richardson was growing smugger and smugger. Stiles didn’t know what to do, he didn’t know how to help Derek or if he even could. He felt useless and his status as an Omega just made him feel worse, like society was right and he wasn’t capable of doing anything himself.

Stiles looked around the hall, desperately trying to come up with a distraction when he saw a couple a ways down the table. The man kissed the woman’s temple and she giggled, shooing him away playfully. The distraction came to him then and it probably wasn’t the smartest or the smoothest plan, but they were a newly (semi) mated pair and it wasn’t like anyone would judge them for it.

He stood up, moving around the corner of the table to stand beside Derek who was still glaring at Alpha Richardson and Malcolm. Stiles took a deep breath and swung a leg across Derek’s lap, sitting down on his lap and then wrapping his arms around his neck and kissing him.

The entire hall was silent then and Derek was only still for a second before he wrapped his arms around Stiles’ waist, holding him close. He would definitely consider it a mission accomplished, but not in the best way since he never wanted anyone else to see this. Stiles never wanted others to know what it would look like if Derek kissed him or held him, but it was just the price he’d have to pay.

It went a little too far very quickly, Derek’s hands grazing his ass and their tongues sliding together. Stiles would have been embarrassed if he didn’t remind himself of why he was doing it. If this stopped Derek from killing someone, then so be it.  If Derek needed to stake his claim by being physical, then well, Stiles wasn’t going to oppose.

Especially since he was the instigator.

Derek broke apart from him, placing his mouth on his neck and then leaning back, looking up at him with some weird mixture of pride and awe and well, lust. There was a lot of lust there too.

“Well,” Deucalion said. “I’m a blind man and even I can appreciate the passion of a young, mated couple.”

There was some nervous laughter at that, but some of it sounded genuine, like Derek and Stiles’ mating and blatant make-out session was something to be admired. Derek pressed a kiss to his mouth again, moving Stiles so that he was sitting more comfortably in his lap (even though all Stiles wanted to do was curl up into a ball under the table and bring the chocolate dessert with him).

Eventually everyone went back to talking and Derek barely spared Richardson and Malcolm a glance as he kissed his temple. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” Stiles shrugged. “We’re still talking though.”

“I figured,” Derek said, getting a forkful of his dessert before moving it toward Stiles’ mouth.

“You’re totally not feeding me.”

“Stiles, you just made out with me in front of all these people, this is nothing.”

“Your opinion,” Stiles said, eating what was offered to him anyway and not even stopping the moan he made because of how good it was.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Thanks.”

After the dessert plates had been sent away it was time for everyone to go dance and socialize some more. Stiles was following everyone (and dreading spending time dancing for hours) when Derek grabbed his elbow, steering him away from the crowd and leading him upstairs.

“Where are we going?” Stiles asked, happily going along with him.

“Away from people,” Derek said. “They won’t even miss us, they’re all probably assuming that I’m taking you to bed.”

“Yeah, I’d be surprised if they didn’t think that.”

Derek chuckled, shaking his head as he led him through the living room area on the second floor and then out onto the veranda. Stiles couldn’t help but roll his eyes at how cliché Derek was being, but he couldn’t find it in himself to complain. He walked to the railing, placing his hands on it and looking out when Derek walked up behind him, placing his hands next to his and running his nose up his throat.

“Gonna tell me what Richardson and Malcolm were talking about?” Stiles asked, trying not to sink back into Derek too much.

“I will.”

“When?” Stiles questioned. “Tomorrow? Is that your answer for everything?”

Derek sighed and Stiles hated that he felt so upset. They had been fine a minute ago and now Stiles was opening his big mouth again.

“Tomorrow I want to explain everything that I intended to tell you,” Derek said. “I’ll tell you what Richardson was saying now if you want.”

“Of course I want you to tell me.”

“Malcolm told Richardson that we didn’t complete the mating,” Derek explained. “And then Richardson noticed that I was listening and he started to make some… comments about you.”

“Comments like what?”

“I really don’t want to repeat them. I don’t want to say those things about you even if I’m just replaying what someone else said.”

“Okay,” Stiles said even though he still wanted to know. “Do you think Richardson is going to report us for not being fully mated?”

“Probably.”

Stiles felt sick. It was like his worst nightmare had come true and now he would be forced to do the festival all over again. An Omega had to leave with an Alpha unless all of them turned him or her down. Stiles would have to ask every single Alpha and get a no from every single one until he would ask Alpha Richardson who would of course say yes.

“Don’t worry,” Derek said, turning Stiles around in his arms and cupping his face in his hands. “It’s my fault for not spending your heat with you, I won’t let them take you away.”

“Derek, they’re going to take me away,” he said. “There’s no way they can’t take me away from you.”

“They won’t.”

“How the hell can you be so confident?” he asked. “There’s no way out of this.”

“There is, I promise.”

He believed him and he didn’t know why. He didn’t know why he believed and trusted Derek so fully when it came to this. He should be freaking the fuck out, but instead he was just calm and trusting in Derek. It was so bizarre, but he didn’t even question it, just nodding along.

“You better not be lying.”

“You know that I’m not.”

Stiles probably should have tried to be mad at him or hit him or something, but he just sighed. “Okay. Okay, fine.”

“Do you want me to get you drunk?”

“Of course.”

Derek grinned, pressing his mouth against Stiles’ before heading toward the exit. “Thank you for trusting me.”

Stiles nodded and Derek left, leaving Stiles alone on the veranda. He should probably be concerned in his blind faith of Derek, but it felt right and Richardson was an asshole, maybe the mating board would take pity on Stiles and Derek. There was no use in convincing them that they weren’t actually mated since any simple mating test could prove that, but maybe they could convince them that they were madly in love.

He got caught up in his thoughts (something that wasn’t exactly uncommon for him) when he heard someone walking on the veranda behind him.

“That was fast,” Stiles said, looking over his shoulder to see Richardson instead of Derek standing there.

“Wrong Alpha?” he asked, walking toward Stiles. “Sorry to disappoint.”

“I’m not.”

“Oh really?”

“No, it’s more of a sick, nauseous feeling,” Stiles shrugged. “But that might just be how I feel whenever I’m in the same room as you.”

“Now is that anyway to talk to your Alpha?”

“You’re not my Alpha.”

“And neither is Derek.”

“Of course he is.”

Richardson scoffed at that, leaning against the railing next to Stiles. “You should have chosen me, Genim. I would have taken such good care of you during your heat. It was probably miserable all alone. You needed someone to give you what you needed. I bet you would have begged so prettily for me, spread your legs like such a good boy, I could have made you so wet.”

And that was Stiles’ cue to leave. He didn’t even have to ask Derek about what he had said during dinner because that was more than enough insight into what had happened. Leaving wouldn’t be easy though since Richardson grabbed his biceps, pushing him up against the wall of the house.

“When I turn you two in you’re going to redo the festival and you’ll come to me.”

“That’s not happening,” Stiles said. “We have a trump card.”

“And what’s that?”

“None of your business.”

“So you don’t have one,” Richardson said, a slow smile creeping up on his face. “Genim, I can take you away tonight if you want. I’ll take you back to my castle and I’ll treat you how Derek should have. I won’t be able to give you what you really need, but I’ll satisfy you in ways he won’t be able to.”

“I think I’ll pass,” Stiles said. “Because Derek already satisfies me. He satisfies me so… good. It’s amazing what that man can do with his tongue. And I’m in love with him, so that just makes it even more… phenomenal.”

“You’re a bad liar.”

“No, I’m actually a very good one,” Stiles said. “I just don’t feel comfortable talking about my private life with you.”

Richardson rolled his eyes, pressing closer to Stiles and trailing a hand down his back. That was it, that was the moment that Stiles was going to punch him in the face and knee him in the balls and show him how stupid it was to touch a sheriff’s son.

Of course that was also when Derek decided to get his ass back over there to save him from Richardson. (Even though he didn’t need saving, but making Derek feel like he could be his knight in shining armor probably went a long way.)

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Derek asked, his eyes glowing red as he pried Richardson from Stiles.

“Talking to my future mate,” Richardson shrugged.

“That didn’t look like talking,” Derek growled and Stiles could see that he had changed into his Beta form already. “If you value your pathetic excuse for a life, you should leave my home and never come near my mate again.”

It was a pretty impressive threat, but Richardson just shrugged. “Fine. I’ll take my leave. I’ll see you soon, Genim.”

He left then, leaving Derek breathing hard and angrily and Stiles feeling violated but more annoyed than anything else. Stiles went to Derek first, placing his hands on his shoulders and trying to talk to him.

“Derek, just calm down,” Stiles said. “The things he said were more violating than him putting a hand on my ass. Just change back, I know that anger can trigger your transformation, but you have to control yourself.”

Derek buried his face into the crook of Stiles’ neck and he chuckled darkly. “Anger is the last thing that would make me turn. I turned on will.”

“Why?” Stiles asked, feeling Derek change back into his normal form.

“Because he was saying those things to you,” Derek said. “He was rubbing his scent all over you. He was making you uncomfortable.”

“I’m not some Omega in distress who can’t take care of himself.”

“I know,” Derek said. “But that doesn’t make my wolf any less possessive.”

Stiles couldn’t even think about asking what that meant because Derek was taking him in his arms and exiting the veranda. He moved quickly across the floor, making his way toward their bedrooms. Once they reached the sitting room that separated their rooms, Stiles thought they would go their own ways, but Derek headed toward his room instead.

Derek’s room was a place that Stiles had only seen a couple of times and it was a lot grander than his own room. Like the other times he wasn’t able to fully appreciate it though because Derek was dropping him on the bed before he started taking his clothes off.

And oh God this was actually happening.

“Strip.”

“What?” Stiles asked, way too distracted by Derek’s smooth muscled flesh to be concerned with showing off his own pale skin.

“Stiles, take off your clothes.”

He should have protested, but his Omega was already rolling onto his back and spreading his legs and oh fuck, even without the Omega he wanted this. Stiles shrugged out of his suit jacket before struggling with his bowtie. He was taking too long though because Derek was already in just his underwear when he started taking his clothes off for him.

It all seemed a little fast then and Stiles couldn’t help but think how pointless this was. They had opted out of his heat just to have a shitty romp not even two months later? And over a jerkoff like Richardson? Stiles had never been the most sentimental person, but it felt like such a waste and even though his Omega was begging and Derek had gotten almost all of his clothes off, he just didn’t want it.

“Derek, Derek, stop, I can’t—”

“Me neither,” Derek admitted.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, I want to,” Derek said. “God, I want to more than anything, but this isn’t why I didn’t spend your heat with you.”

Derek settled down next to him on the bed before pulling him toward him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

“Alphas aren’t supposed to be this nice,” Stiles said. “And I know I’ve said that a thousand times, but Derek you’re not supposed to be like this with me. I’ve never heard of any Alpha doing something like this before. Derek, what’s the reason why I won’t be able to repeat the festival? What’s your trump card?”

“Tomorrow,” Derek said. “I promise I’ll tell you when we talk tomorrow.”

**OoOoOoO**

He woke up in an empty bed with a note on the mattress next to him. Needless to say he wasn’t exactly surprised. After they had curled up in bed last night he had fallen asleep pretty quickly and had then woken up soon after to find Derek at the door telling Isaac to get everyone to leave.

Stiles grabbed the note, sleepily blinking his eyes completely open before reading it.

_Gone to business meeting at the winery. Didn’t want to wake you. I’ll be back this evening since Richardson already reported us and he’s bringing a mating counselor with him._

_Don’t worry too much.  
Derek_

It was safe to say that he tried and failed at not snorting because that was just so like Derek. Part of him was terrified that he’d have to redo the festival (and he still didn’t know if it was because he could end up with Richardson or because he would be taken away from Derek) and the other part of him was just hugely trusting in Derek. He didn’t know if it was the Omega inside of him trusting his Alpha or if it was just him trusting Derek.

He didn’t want to think about it too much, getting out of Derek’s bed and looking around the room. It was a lot grander than Stiles’ room and more mature as well. The furnishings were all red or black and there was a huge window overlooking the back of the estate. A door led to Derek’s closet and bathroom and even though the bathroom was more old-fashioned than Stiles’, it didn’t make it any less grand. He took a gray Henley from the closet, pulling it over his head and suppressing a smile. If they were going to convince a mating counselor that they were mated then wearing Derek’s clothes couldn’t hurt.

He was ready to leave the room and head back to his own to get ready for breakfast when a wall covered in picture frames caught his attention. And he really shouldn’t have gone over there because that was probably some kind of invasion of privacy, but Derek had flipped through his photo album so fair was fair.

He made his way to the picture frames, noticing that some were just framed paintings and some were degrees Derek had gotten and some were family pictures. There was a younger Derek with two beautiful girls who had to be his sisters. A photo of Mr. and Mrs. Hale during their mating ceremony was bigger than the rest and in a place of honor. A more recent picture was of Derek, one of his sisters (who he assumed was Laura), and an older man (probably his Uncle Peter) all giving small smiles while standing in front of the Hale estate. The wing that had been destroyed during the fire was in construction in the background and Stiles felt his stomach tighten at that.

There were more pictures of the gardens in the estate and of other family photos, but once Stiles had picked out Derek he had lost interest. Most of these people were dead and the other two were living somewhere else, miles from Derek. It made even him feel lonely and he was even more determined to stay and not let some mating counselor take him away. Derek was so alone and that was the last thing Stiles wanted.

He headed back to his own room, briefly checking his phone to see that he had six missed calls from Scott and 11 from his dad. Word traveled fast apparently and he decided to call Scott first since being worried over was better than being yelled at.

“Dude, you’re screwed.”

“Gee Scotty, thanks for the encouragement.”

“No, seriously, you’re screwed,” Scott said.

“Scott, he’s going to be fine,” Allison said in the background. “Put it on speaker.”

Stiles sat down at his desk, looking out the window as Scott and Allison pressed random buttons until speaker finally came on.

“You’re going to be fine, Stiles,” Allison assured.

“Yeah, I think I will be.”

“How exactly?” Scott asked. “Like seriously, there’s no way around this.”

“Derek says that he knows a way.”

“And has he told you what that way is?” Scott asked.

“Well, no, but I trust him.”

“You trust the jackass who wouldn’t spend your heat with you and because of that you’re going to be sent back.”

“Scott,” Allison said, her tone warning. “I’m sure Derek knows what he’s doing.”

“Oh God,” Scott groaned, ignoring Allison for once in his life. “What if he decides to run? What if he drugs you and takes you with him? What if he kills you because if he can’t have you no one can?”

“I haven’t really gotten any serial killer psychopath vibes from him, but I’ll look out for that, buddy,” Stiles said, rolling his eyes.

“Stiles, I’m serious.”

“I know you are, but I really trust him,” Stiles said. “I don’t know why, but I just do. He hasn’t hurt me and he hasn’t treated me like some delicate Omega. He treats me like a person and sure, he’s far from perfect, but I can’t really ask for more.”

“Oh man,” Scott groaned. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

“Scott,” Allison chided.

“No, I’m not,” Stiles said. “But, I mean, I could be someday.”

“And do you want to be in love with him?”

“Kind of?”

He could practically hear Scott rolling his eyes and Allison smiling fondly from the other line. It was true though. If they managed to make it through today and if Derek finally opened up to him more, there was no way he wouldn’t fall in love with Derek.

“Call us when you get the verdict,” Scott sighed.

“Will do.”

After hanging up he took a quick shower, getting all of the gel from last night out of his hair and wincing at being hairless and slimy. He changed back into Derek’s Henley and into a pair of jeans before heading downstairs where Isaac was probably ready to make breakfast.

Or lunch judging by the time his watch was giving him. It was already one o’clock and Stiles really didn’t think he had slept for that long.

In the breakfast room was Isaac, Boyd, and Erica. All of them were sitting at the table and talking quietly, the conversation of course stopping when he walked into the room.

“So is this our farewell?” Erica asked as he took a seat next to her at the table.

“No,” Stiles said, helping himself to one of the sandwiches on the huge pile in the center of the table. “Hopefully not anyway. You guys wouldn’t happen to know what Derek’s big plan is, would you?”

“Actually, yeah,” Isaac said. “We do know. But I’m not sure we should tell you.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’ll freak out,” Boyd said bluntly. “And you’ll find out tonight, so I’d rather you freak out then because then we won’t have to deal with you.”

“I feel so much love coming from you, Boyd.”

“It’s a gift.”

Erica looked at him fondly and Stiles rolled his eyes as she kissed him noisily on the cheek. Okay, so maybe they were as nauseating as Scott and Allison. Isaac probably wasn’t too bad with his mate though, whoever that may be.

And there was no time like the present to figure it out.

“So, Isaac,” he said, trying to keep his tone conversational. “Since you’re all so convinced in this trump card Derek has, I guess I’m staying.”

“Uh-huh,” Isaac said slowly.

“Since I’m staying I’d love to meet you ma—”

“So how are your lessons with Mrs. Bayens going?” Erica interjected. “She seems like a really nice lady.”

“Yeah, let’s talk about that,” Isaac said. “Is she a good teacher?”

“Y’know one of these days I’m going to find out who your mate is.”

“And that day is not today,” Isaac shrugged.

The rest of his day was pretty uneventful strangely enough. He didn’t call his dad because he didn’t need the lecture and he didn’t find Derek because he didn’t want to be surrounded by a ton of Alphas discussing business for hours. He contemplated going out to the town, but word of their incomplete mating had probably spread and he didn’t want the stares.

He was concerned of course, but mostly concerned with his lack of trying to figure out what was going on. What did Derek have that made it so impossible for them to be separated? Something like this normally would have driven him insane but it just _wasn’t_.

So he spent the day inside being lazy. He hung out with Isaac for a bit and played a few games of bowling in the basement. Then he started working on homework for Mrs. Bayens and he had gotten through all of it except for his English homework. They were going through a Shakespeare unit and he had been assigned to write a sonnet and the only thing he could think to write a sonnet about was how much of a stupid handsome idiot Derek was.

And of course that was what he wrote about.

Evening was approaching and Stiles was starting to get a little on edge about everything. He hadn’t seen Derek all day and he was hoping that he hadn’t gotten into any trouble. Richardson and the mating counselor were supposed to be coming during the evening and Stiles was still alone in his room, waiting.

This was of course where his patience finally ended and he had no other choice but than to grab his laptop and start looking through old records of cases like theirs. Despite being rare, there was a pretty big number of pairs who had to go back to redo the festival because of the bond not being completed properly. He couldn’t find any of them that had been allowed to keep the bond and wait for the next heat to complete it when one caught his eye.

The case was dated back 30 years ago for an Alpha werewolf female and a human Omega female. The ages were close to Derek and Stiles’ as well and Stiles had just clicked on it for details when two hands clasped down on his shoulders.

“You really couldn’t wait for me to just tell you?”

Stiles did not jump and shriek in an unmanly fashion.

Definitely not.

“You could warn a guy,” he panted, hand over his heart as he turned around to face Derek. “Where did you even come from?”

“The door,” Derek deadpanned.

“Yeah, yeah. Very funny,” Stiles said, rolling his eyes and closing his laptop. “And I thought I was doing a good job since I only started searching 40 minutes ago.”

“That is impressive,” Derek said. “I expected 40 minutes after you got my note.”

“I refrained.”

“Why?”

“I trust you.”

A soft smile came over Derek’s face and it looked genuine, like nothing Stiles had ever seen from Derek. He stood up, placing his hands on Derek’s shoulders and just looking at him.

“So, this case,” he said. “Is it almost identical to ours?”

“Yeah, the reason’s the same,” Derek said.

“So we’re going to be okay?”

“Our mating bond will be,” Derek said. “But if you want to leave, you can. I’m not forcing you to stay here, it’s your choice. Just remember what I said to you at the gardens when you first came here: I’m going to let you down.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Stiles said, trying not to sound _too_ bitter. “I’m staying though. I really like Isaac and Boyd and Erica and… I really like you too. I care about you.”

It was true too. He did care about Derek. He cared that the man had been alone for so long and when he finally had someone and was trying to make it good for them, some asshole tried to take him away. He couldn’t bear to think of Derek being alone anymore.

“Just explain things to me, please?” Stiles suggested. “You don’t have to tell me your entire life story, just let me in a little.”

“I will if you will.”

That confused him for a moment. He thought that he had been open and honest with Derek, that he had told him everything a mate could possibly want to know. Thinking back on it though, it was pretty clear that he really hadn’t.

He had introduced Derek to his friends and family, but he had never really told him who he was. All he had really done was complain about the lifestyle they had been forced into, only giving Derek tidbits of himself as they went along.

“You didn’t realize, did you?”

“No, no I really didn’t,” Stiles said slowly. “Wow, okay, yeah, we’re totally going to play 20 Random Facts once we make it through this.”

Derek chuckled, bringing his hands to Stiles’ hips and pulling him closer. “Well, first random fact is that I really love you wearing my shirt.”

“Oh, I completely forgot I was,” Stiles said, looking down at the Henley that was tight and gorgeous on Derek and just kind of hanging off of his own limbs. “Do you have any smaller t-shirts or something, because this looks kind of—”

“Good,” Derek said, bringing his nose to the crook of Stiles’ neck and inhaling. “Very good. You smell like us.”

“And you like that?”

“I love that.”

Goosebumps prickled up his arms at Derek’s words and at the man himself pressing his mouth against Stiles’ skin, right against the scar of his mating bite. Stiles moved his arms around Derek’s broad shoulders, shuffling closer to him and tilting his head back to give him more access to his neck. Derek hummed appreciatively, teeth latching onto Stiles’ pale skin.

It was weird how they had seen each other almost completely naked and had made out against walls and in beds, but this was the most intimate thing they’d ever done. Stiles wearing Derek’s shirt and baring his neck and Derek inhaling their scent and nipping at the scar.

“We should probably get down there,” Derek said after his mouth had traveled all the way up to Stiles’ jawline.

“I kinda don’t want to.”

“Me neither,” Derek sighed. “We should probably keep appearances up though.”

“And making out before walking to our doom isn’t keeping appearances up?”

“You want to make out?”

“I’d love to make out.”

“We shouldn’t.”

“Yeah, but doesn’t that just make it more fun?”

There was a beat of them just looking at each other before Derek was depositing him on the bed and climbing on top of him. This was extremely irresponsible since a mating counselor was downstairs, but rubbing it in Richardson’s face was more appealing than impressing a counselor.

And making their mating seeming as physical as possible in the small confines they had couldn’t be a bad thing.

Derek’s mouth had found his neck again while his hands were gripping Stiles’ ass through his jeans, massaging it in a way that was more than a little indecent. Stiles had his arms wrapped around the man’s shoulders, legs spread and wrapping around Derek’s waist as best as he could.

“I can smell it, you know.”

“Smell what?” Stiles asked, looking at Derek when their foreheads pressed together.

“What you have hidden in the bottom of your sock drawer,” he said. “It reeks of your slick.”

And oh _God_ why was that making him so hot? Seriously, that should not be hot but it was because it was Derek and everything Derek did was vaguely hot in some way. But Derek knowing that he had fucked himself with a stupid joke present from his friends was not hot, that was mortifying and embarrassing and—

“God, I’d love to fuck you with it someday if you would let me.”

—and so fucking ridiculously hot.

“Fuck yes,” Stiles breathed, grabbing Derek’s shoulders and bringing him down to kiss him again.

Derek slid his tongue into his mouth then and Stiles moaned appreciatively, sliding his tongue against his. He gripped onto the back of Derek’s shirt, trying to get some leverage to rut up against him, gaining some friction between them. Derek gripped his ass tighter, bringing him up to do what Stiles had tried, just a lot more efficiently. Stiles felt his mouth drop open at the friction, a little moan escaping that Derek swallowed instantly.

And then there was a knock on the door.

“What?” Derek asked gruffly, letting Stiles drop back down onto the bed.

The door opened just enough for Isaac to stick his head through the door, grinning smugly. “Sorry to interrupt, but your guests are getting a little impatient.”

“We’ll be down in a minute.”

Isaac left then and Stiles swore he could hear his little maniacal giggle as he walked away.

“I don’t think we can finish this in a minute,” Stiles said.

“That’s because we’re not,” Derek sighed, getting off the bed and taking one of Stiles’ hands to pull him off too.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.”

Derek gave him a small smile, his hand coming up to Stiles’ neck, thumb brushing against his skin. “At least you look like you’re mine.”

Stiles was about to ask what he meant when Derek pointed to the full-length mirror at the other side of the room. He walked toward it, taking a look and rolling his eyes almost instantly. His hair was sticking up weirdly and his clothes were rumpled and there was a hickey forming right above the scar on his neck. Not to mention he was wearing Derek’s shirt that showed off more of his shoulders and chest than his own shirts, revealing some impressive stubble burn.

“Such a possessive asshole,” Stiles breather, not even trying to stop his grin when Derek came up behind him and wrapped his arms around his waist.

“Sorry?”

“Say it when you mean it.”

“Well I’m sorry that we have to go downstairs right now and do this.”

Stiles sighed, turning around in Derek’s arms and shrugging a bit. “You gotta do what you gotta do.”

“Yeah,” Derek nodded, pressing his lips to Stiles’ forehead.

They headed downstairs hand in hand while Derek told him about the business meeting/wine tasting. Apparently he had been able to make a few good deals with some of the business men, one even selling him some more land. The region was continuing to expand and that only slightly worried Stiles. The more the region expanded the busier Derek would get and the less Stiles would see him.

It was selfish to think like that though, so he kept quiet.

They were meeting Richardson and the mating counselor in the salon which was right off the breakfast room. Stiles rarely went in there since it was just a glorified sitting room and if he wanted some peace and quiet he would just go to the library.

Richardson was sitting in an armchair looking smug and pompous (even though Stiles was pretty sure that was his default face) while another man was sitting on a couch, looking mild and neutral. He caught sight of them, standing up and outstretching his hand to Derek. It was then that Stiles recognized the man as Alan Deaton, a veterinarian who Scott was apprenticing under and also the mating counselor who had pronounced Scott and Allison as true mates.

“It’s good to see you, Derek,” Deaton said, shaking Derek’s hand.

“You too, Alan,” Derek said before turning to Stiles. “This is—”

“Stiles, yes, we’ve already met,” Deaton said, shaking Stiles’ hand as well. “I just saw Scott yesterday, he’s very worried about the predicament you’ve gotten yourself into.”

“I told him I’d call him when we got the verdict.”

“Good idea.”

Deaton sat back down on the couch while Derek and Stiles sat down on the loveseat, as far from Richardson as possible.

“So, Deaton, let’s get started,” Richardson said. “I waited longer than I would have liked for such a stupid reason.”

His eyes lingered on Stiles’ neck where Derek had left bite marks and he crinkled up his nose in distaste. Stiles proudly stretched his neck out though, happy to display what Derek had left on him.

“All right then,” Deaton said, reaching into his briefcase. “I’m just going to do a simple mating test to check your bond.”

He took out what looked like a tuning fork, standing up and making his way between Stiles and Derek. After hitting the fork sound resonated between them and Deaton looked contemplative before chiming it again.

“Well, it is off tune,” Deaton said. “They’ve started the mating but they haven’t completed it. Under normal circumstances I’d have to report this and Stiles would have to return to Beacon Hills. Thankfully I won’t have to do that, especially since you two look so comfortable with each other.”

“I don’t understand,” Richardson said. “What circumstances aren’t normal? They didn’t complete the bond, it’s a faulty mating.”

“No, it’s actually a very true mating,” Deaton said. “Under human law I’d have to report this, but werewolf law makes me have to report this in another way. Derek and Stiles are true mates; I have to send a file to the government reporting that once I’m back at my office. They’ll have to sign an agreement here saying that they’ll properly complete the bond during Stiles’ next heat.”

Richardson then started yelling in outrage at Deaton, but Stiles couldn’t even process it. He was just sitting there, completely dumbstruck and feeling like the stupidest person in the world. It had never even crossed his mind that they could be true mates, but the more he thought about it the more sense it made.

And then Derek’s actions started to make no sense the more he thought about them. Everything was a huge jumble of sense and nonsense and he felt like he was in a daze, completely unknowing to what was going on around him.

“Stiles.”

He looked to his left to see Derek sitting there, looking at him worryingly. “I get if you’re mad, but I promise I’ll explain everything that I can as soon as they leave.”

Stiles just nodded and then Deaton was shoving contracts at them. He signed his name on the dotted line before having to mark it out and sign “Stiles Hale” instead. It was still weird being a Hale, but that really was the least of his concern. Deaton bid them farewell and Richardson was marching toward Derek, looking like he was about to throw a punch.

“I’ll walk you to the door, Richardson.”

“You paid Deaton off, didn’t you Hale?” he spat. “You told him to say that!”

“Of course I didn’t,” Derek shrugged. “I just knew that he would say it. I suggest you leave.”

“If you think you can make me leave—”

“You want me to take care of this, boss?”

Boyd was leaning on the back wall of the salon, a smug smile on his face as he looked at Richardson. He walked toward them, giving Stiles a thumbs up before looking at Derek for permission.

“That’d be great, Boyd.”

The smug smile turned into a huge grin as Boyd wrapped an arm around Richardson’s shoulders, turning him away from them before steering him out of the room. The door shut behind them and Derek sat down next to him, taking his hand in his again.

“I’m guessing I should start with—”

“Why didn’t you tell my parents and then get it tested so that we could have been together?” Stiles asked. “That’s how it works, right? As soon as you feel it you get it tested and then we get mated as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, that’s how it works,” Derek said, nodding his head. “Can I just explain this to you? Just start from the beginning?”

No. He really _really_ wanted to say no. He wanted to tell Derek that he had kept this huge secret from him for years and he deserved to have all of the details right that second though.

He didn’t though, choosing just to nod.

“The first time I saw you was at your first Omega ceremony,” Derek said. “I saw you at the top of the stairs when they announced your name and I just knew. You pulled me in, Stiles. I wanted to know everything about you and I wanted to take care of you. I knew what it was, my parents had told me about it and I recognized it.

“But then you fell down the stairs and I was more preoccupied with making sure you went to the hospital rather than telling my parents that I had found my true mate. I had never been more scared than seeing you in that hospital bed and your dad was yelling at me about why I was even there when your mom stepped in. She made me explain and when I did she understood.”

“Sounds like her,” Stiles said.

Derek’s mouth twitched up into a smile, probably because Stiles wasn’t giving him the silent treatment, before continuing. “We had lived in Beacon Hills for a few years when I was a baby since this house was under renovations. We moved back though and I begged my parents for us to move back so I could be close to you. If we had gone straight to the government with it then you would have been forced to move in with us, taken away from your family.

“You were so young and I couldn’t do that to you, so I promised your family that I would wait until you were older and capable of understanding what was between us.”

“Why didn’t you?” Stiles asked.

“Because the fire happened,” Derek said, breaking away from Stiles’ eyes to look at their clasped hands. “I… changed after the fire. I wasn’t worthy of you, I couldn’t even take care of myself so there would be no way I could take care of you. I was too broken for you and you deserved going through the festival and having the choice instead of being stuck with me.

“And then I saw you again at the opening ceremony and I couldn’t just let you go, Stiles. I followed you onto the balcony to talk with you. And when I realized that the ceremony was the opposite of what you wanted, I tried to convince you to choose me.”

“That’s why you were a completely different person then,” Stiles said. “When we got to the estate you were so… closed off. You’re still closed off.”

Derek looked back at him then, raising an eyebrow. “Stiles, I’m telling you what you need to know.”

“You’re telling me bits and pieces.”

“I’m not ready to tell you the entire story.”

“Why not?” Stiles asked. “You kept this from me for years. You took my life into your hands and assumed what I would want instead of asking me. You do know the thing about true mates when one’s a human, don’t you? I may be made for you, but you’re not made for me, Derek.”

He was standing and he didn’t know when he had stood. He was also out of breath like he had been running and he felt… hurt. Everything about it hurt because despite being lied to he still trusted Derek. Everything inside of him still wanted Derek more than anything and it was the worst feeling in the world. It was like his mind was being ganged up on by his heart and his body and he couldn’t do anything about it.

“You still won’t talk about what happened in the gardens when I first arrived either,” Stiles said. “Someone hurt you and you’re keeping that from me too.”

“There’s a lot to tell you.”

“Then tell me.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Of course it is.”

Derek stood up again, using his slight height advantage against him again. “I’m not going to tell you now.”

“Then when are you going to tell me?” Stiles asked. “After we finish the mating during my heat? When I’ll be completely yours? When you can manipulate me and boss me around as much as you please? When you can lock me away and keep me all to yourself?”

“I’m not like Richardson.”

“I know. Richardson never lied to me.”

A growl ripped its way through Derek’s throat and his eyes flashed red, a hand rising up in front of Stiles, making to grab him before stopping. They just stood there, tension thick in the air. Stiles was glaring at him and Derek went from breathing heavily and angrily like he was holding himself back to just looking at him sadly.

“You can leave.”

“What?”

“If you want to go, you can go,” Derek said. “Take your Jeep to a new city, outside of my region, start a new life and tell everyone you’re a Beta. Maybe you’ll find someone who’s capable of taking care of you like you need.”

Derek turned around then and that just made Stiles angrier. What was the point in telling Stiles to leave and then just leaving himself? And Stiles didn’t even want to leave. Sure he was angry and feeling betrayed, but he wanted to stay with Derek. Everything that he had thought before about not wanting Derek to be lonely still held true and he couldn’t even think about leaving.

“I can’t leave.”

“Of course you can,” Derek said after he had stopped walking, turning his head slightly.

“No, because I really like mysteries, Derek,” Stiles said. “I always have and you literally just gave me the biggest one.”

“And what’s that?”

“You.”

That got Derek to face him entirely and Stiles couldn’t place the emotions on his face but he opened up the bond, feeling relief and happiness and sadness and that same fondness that was always within Derek.

And the same love.

“You know that I love you, don’t you?” Derek asked.

Stiles just nodded and Derek nodded in return before exiting the salon.

Because of course Derek was in love with him. He had known Stiles for over eight years, had probably looked after him and watched him grow. He was Derek’s true mate, completely made for the man and there was no way Derek couldn’t love him.

And it was horrifying and nerve-wracking and put more pressure on him than he ever wanted in his life.

But it made sense and that was the only thing that really made sense to him anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, the Hale Estate is based off of the Biltmore Estate because can you say inspiration? I definitely can.
> 
> There's a .00000001% chance of me finishing this fic, so please don't ask/beg/threaten for updates. It's very stressful and annoying. It's not going to be complete. You knew what you were getting into when you saw the update date and the incomplete status. Don't pin it all on me.


End file.
